Last week you got to meet Michele Boyd. This weeks, we have the esteem pleasure to meet Daniel Whitcomb. You don’t know Daniel Whitcomb? Well, maybe I can shed some light on this.. Ever heard of this small column Lichborne over on WoW Insider? How about, that other blog Big Download? He blogs there also.
So enough wasting your time, let’s meet Daniel.
Hi Daniel thanks for taking the time to do this and your patience for me taking so long to get back to you.
Before the 20 questions, I hope you don’t mind if we get to know you a bit.
You write for WoW Insider, can you briefly tell us how you got started?
It was actually a pretty simple and painless process. WoW Insider put out a general call for new writers on the website. I sent in my resume and a few writing samples, they liked it, and now I write for them. Perhaps not the most glamorous way to break into the world of WoW blogging, but I’m glad it happened to me.
What are some of your other endeavors?
At the moment, I actually have a day job constructing and maintaining contracts and pricing agreements for trucking companies and shippers. I’m also working on a few fictional writing projects on the side. Alas, nothing published yet on that front, but I am hopeful.
Now that it’s official, you’ve handed over the reins of Scattered Shots to Lassirra of The Hunter’s Mark. How does that feel?
Despite the bad rap the class and its players sometimes get, I’ve always loved the Hunter community as a whole, and while we’ve had our rough patches and disagreements with Blizzard, it’s been a fun community to be a part of and a very fun class to play. I’m sorry I won’t be able to represent and interact with the class and its players quite as much. At the same time, I’m very happy we’ve found such a great representative of the Hunter community, and so far, I’ve enjoyed Lassirra’s work, and I look forward to seeing more of it. I’m sure she’ll far outshine me.
Thanks, now let’s start on the harder questions.
1. Being the Death Knight “Expert”, how do you feel with how Blizzard is handling the lore? Some have said that being an Ally DK just seems wrong; others feel the story makes for a great tragedy.
I think Blizzard’s Death Knight lore is perfectly feasible. People have a tendency to cry “retcon” far too easily. I agree that Blizzard is far too in love with retcons, but this obviously isn’t the case here. Arthas, as Lich King, has the ability to bestow necromantic powers on whoever he chooses. He choose to create a new batch of Death Knights, the better to overpower the peoples of Azeroth with. It certainly makes sense from a strategic standpoint, if Tirion hadn’t stepped in and mucked everything up.
Alliance Death Knights are generally pretty fine with me. With the recommendation of the King of Stormwind, they’re accepted, and that works for me. After all, the Horde didn’t trust Death Knights until Thrall accepted them either. You can point to the Forsaken as evidence the Horde would be more tolerant, but I think the Alliance mistrust of the Forsaken comes more from the fact that the Forsaken have been waging a campaign of genocide against the alliance in Lordaeron for years rather than an innate mistrust of anyone in an undead state.
2. Speaking of the Death Knight Hero class. What about the fit of Hero classes in game in general? Should they be “Special” (e.g. Maybe more powerful) or are DK’s just another class that is more of a reward an opened up after reaching specific goals?
Death Knights, in the end, should be balanced. It’s no fun for the other classes if one class is strongly more powerful than they are unless it has some massive handicaps which Death Knights don’t really have. Blizzard agrees with me on that, and never promised that Hero classes would be quantifiably more powerful, regardless of what some think. They feel incredibly epic, and they have some interesting and exciting class mechanics, but in the end, they are “just another class” power-wise, or should be.
3. There were talks early on that the Death Knight wouldn’t be opened until after completing a special quest chain. Do you think maybe Blizzard erred in not following this strategy? Can you explain your reasoning?
I think Blizzard’s method of releasing Death Knights worked just fine. The quest chain that does “unlock” them, that is, lets them step outside of a special instanced starting zone into the rest of the game world, is plenty epic in and of itself, providing a context to the class, fitting it into the lore, and providing a crash course in training the talents and abilities of the class. Making people jump through hoops and play a class they don’t want to play to play a class they do want to play just doesn’t work for me. That type of delayed grinding gratification for something as simple as playing who you want to play just doesn’t work. Let’s leave that a relic of past MMOs.
4. Back to the Hero class concept. Many claim DK’s are just too powerful and flexible. They seem to be able to do almost anything except heal. Your thoughts?
I think Death Knights suffer a bit from shiny and new syndrome, in that they are new, people notice them, people get jealous of any new and unique mechanics or combinations thereof they bring to the table. In the end, utilty aside, Death Knights have the same flexibility as Warriors, and less than Druids and Paladins, especially when dual specs are taken into account. Any OPness Death Knights have, real or imagined, isn’t unique.
Now, you can argue that because of their flexibility and utility, Death Knights shouldn’t be able to DPS as well as Hunters or Rogues. Which, at face value, is true, but the problem is this: If a Death Knight, or any other class, is looking for a group or raid as DPS, but can’t DPS as well as a Rogue, and his utility is useless for the group or raid encounter, Rogue will be picked 90% of the time. Therefore, I think we do need equal DPS. However, what should happen is that utility should be tweaked to be relatively useful at all levels of the game, so that you can pick different classes based on the utility they bring.
I will admit that Blizzard perhaps isn’t quite there yet, but I believe in being patient. I’m giving it until at least patch 3.1, maybe even 3.2. Not to excuse Blizzard from responsibility for any imbalance, but MMOs are always a work in progress, and especially right after an expansion, adjustments will have to be made, and are being made on the PTR as we speak.
5. Throw us a bone here; many Hunter’s are frustrated when in PvP against a DK. Any hints for how a Hunter should approach DK’s in PvP?
I admit, I’m not the most stellar PvP player ever. I got a couple characters to Knight and Legionnaire back under the old honor system, and I was in a few mid-1600s arena teams in seasons 2 through 4, but I’m not amazing, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I think, of course, keeping your distance in the most important. It also helps to be able to anticipate what a Death Knight can do. Chains of Ice, their major snare, takes a Frost rune to cast. So if you can catch them with their frost runes down, disengage out of their Death Grip, remove any snare they already have on you, slow them, and unload into them, I think you have a chance. Of course, if they’re Blood, watch out for Mark of Blood. All you can really do then is run away from them until it’s gone, unless your damage output is phenomonal.
6. Thinking along a similar train of thought, how about in PvE? How could players develop a better synergy between DK’s and other classes, especially Hunters?
I think in PvE, most of the synergy is just basic stuff. Make sure you stay below your tank on threat. Focus on one target at a time if you can, and know which enemies are dangerous enough to need to be taken down first. Don’t be afraid to Misdirect the tank. Death Knight threat is pretty solid with the right gear, but if you’re burning down a target with all you got, and its not the tank’s primary target, it can still peel off.
For DPS, know how your buffs affect the Death Knight and his various pets. This isn’t as much of a problem for Hunters as it is other classes, but the idea should be that a more permanent pet like a Ghoul can use your long-term buffs, and if possible, you’ll want to time your short term buffs with the DK so his short-term pets such as Gargoyles and Dancing Rune Blades can recieve the benefits of the buff as well. On the flip side, Death Knights do have some group buffs like Improved Icy Talons and Abomination’s Might, but most of those are impossible to control procs and raid wide, so it’s not as much of a problem as for when to use them.
7. So… WoW Insider has an interesting relationship with Blizzard. At times it almost seems to be a Love/Hate one. Can you give us some details on the relationship between the two?
Right now, I think the relationship between WoW Insider and Blizzard has never been better, and is only going to get better. I think we have an understanding, and while we’ll never be a fan site because we don’t want to be constrained by their rules, I think Blizzard knows now that we’re all fangirls and fanboys here, and we like them. We love them even.
8. Because of the uniqueness of your relationship, ever struggle with the thought “If I write that Blizzard might be less forthcoming in the future, maybe, I’ll just edit that out.” or similar conflicts?
WoW Insider encourages each of its editors to have their own thoughts or opinions. We try to stay as non-Monolithic as possible. But I know for my own part, I try to think, first and foremost, of one thing: Is it fair? I don’t want to dogpile on Blizzard or whine about them without a solid ground to stand on. When I write something critical about Blizzard, I make sure I have evidence or logical arguments to back me up, and I make sure that I’m giving their side of the issue a fair shake in my head, even if I don’t specifically write it on paper. But if I do believe my position is fair to them, I have no problem casting a critical eye on some part of their procedure or mechanics I don’t like.
9. Alright, BlizzCon 2009 was announced, will you be going? And what are you really excited about and hope to get out of it?
I can’t say for sure yet if I’ll be going. We still need to finalize plans for that. I’d love to go again, that’s for sure, and I’m definitely excited about it. What I’d like to see most of it, game-wise, is another WoW Expansion and more Diablo III world lore, and perhaps another Diablo III class. Otherwise, I really simply enjoy the camraderie of the event. Having an incredible time with friends and fellow nerds is a pretty invigorating experience.
10. Speaking of BlizzCon, does Blizzard give you all a “press pass” or must WoW Insider or must the writer’s get their own?
We do get press passes for the WoW Insider team.
11. Many people are already thinking towards the next expansion. Do you think this is a sign people are bored with WoW or just an insatiable appetite?
I think people have an appetite for lore and new experiences, and while there may be some restlessness with the delayed release of 3.1, I think people are always looking to the next frontier, looking for more. I do think Blizzard could stand to put out new content a tiny bit faster, but I think people always want more, and a lot of people are pretty curious as to what people like Malfurion and Azshara and Genn Greymane have been up to. It’s never going to be quite enough, but I don’t think it should intrinsically mean anything negative about WoW, Blizzard, or the players.
12. What are your true feelings about Wrath? Do you feel maybe they missed the mark a bit and underestimated the ease and pace players devoured the content?
I think the basic design of Wrath is solid. Leaving more content open to players, such as making 10 and 25 man versions of dungeons, and making more ways to access rewards, such as the championing system, are the way to go. You want players to have more choices. I also appreciate the stronger focus on lore, and an attempt to resolve old storylines and provide continuation and story movement. If there’s anything that needs addressing, it’s the dearth of content, which I think 3.1 will address to at least some extent.
13. So if you where to offer any advice on what to make sure 3.1 and future content patches added, changed, what would they be?
I think they’re doing a smashing job so far on Ulduar. Make Hard mode encounters, yes, but make sure they provide real, solid rewards, and maybe an extra boss or two that only hard mode raiders can access. That, I think, is a recipe for better content. I do want to see more content though. The addition of the Argent Tourney is a great idea, and I think adding large events like that is a good way to get the most value for the largest cross-section of players you can.
In that vein, though, I’d like to see more 5-mans alongside the raids. Like Magister’s Terrace came with the Sunwell raid, Let’s see more 5-mans that borrow some of the theme of the patch’s raid. They could have, for example, made Uldum a 5-man dungeon with this patch in keeping with the theme of the Titans. I’m thinking a future patch needs a Grimtotem/Scourge 5-man that unmasks the true evil of Magatha. But that may be my Grimtotem fanboyism talking. In that vein, adding more Lore and continuing old lore threads is also a key part of putting out a good patch, I think. Don’t let the stories simmer for years, give people a sense of continuation on them, and don’t let them end abruptly unless you have a very solid plan for picking them up later.
Also, I’d really like to see those long-promised Battleground improvements. I think Battlegrounds and large-scale PvP battles such as in AV and WSG need to be emphasized as a valid PvP mileu equal to Arenas.
14. Not to seem only to focus on the negative. What are some of things they’ve done right?
Like I said, I think Ulduar is shaping up to be a masterstroke of a dungeon. Adding tons of Hard modes, but more than that, making them give solid, quantifiable rewards and even open up a new encounter or two is, I think, what they need to do to give the more dedicated raiders rewards for their playstyle. I also think adding the Argent Tourney is definitely a step in the right direction, as is making real, strong leaps in the lore and storyline of the game world.
15. Do you feel that Ghostcrawler has maybe made himself too available and has become an easy target for everyone with ANY complaint about WoW?
Well, Ghostcrawler is now more or less unofficially the figurehead for the dev team, but I don’t know if that’s his fault or if people are just looking for some specific to cling to or complain to. I don’t think he’s *too* available. I think he’s tripped up every once in a while (“To the ground” was a pretty big flub, if only because some of the less savory members of the WoW community have taken it and run with it like crazy), but I appreciate the transparency he brings to the process. He’s not perfect, but I think, in general, he’s a good thing for the community
16. Even though he has made his mistakes, you would agree that the openness has been positive in general, correct? What are some things players should remember when voicing their concerns.
As I’ve said before, make sure you’re being fair. Blizzard, first of all, wants this game to succeed, and the players as well. If they did not like a class, mechanic, dungeon, or ability, they would say so, and would either remove it or tweak it until they liked it. They do not hate you, your class, your spec, your faction, or your race just because you disagree with one of their decisions or a mechanic in the game. They are not out to screw you, shaft you, or punish you. Basically, I wish people would cut the drama queen act and be reasonable. Blizzard CAN screw up, but attributing their mistakes to incompetence or maliciousness is not likely to get them to listen, and is generally pretty ludicrous, or at the least a gross oversimplification of what is actually going on.
17. So it’s pretty obvious you know Death Knights and Hunters, what made you decide that it was time to let go of Scattered Shots and Hunters and focus on DK’s and Lichborne?
There were a lot of tiny reasons. I play my Death Knight as my main right now, as I somewhat always meant to do. I played a Shadowknight back in Everquest, and the lore and atmosphere of the class combined with the play mechanics were a lot of fun to me. Because of that, I fully planned to play a Death Knight in WoW. Of course, Death Knights didn’t make the cut as a class, and their were no direct copies of my other two favorite EQ classes, Bard and Monk, so I went with Druid and Hunter instead, and I had a lot of fun with both. Once Wrath came out though, it was back to Death Knights, and I love them as much as I loved Shadowknights.
So to make a long story short, my Hunter, as much as I still love her, the class, and the community, has been somewhat neglected in Wrath. I plan to pick her up again one day, but probably not for a while. Combine that with needing to shuffle my schedule a bit to reduce stress and free up more free time, and giving Scattered Shots to someone who could show more specific devotion to the Hunter class seemed like the right thing to do. That said, I still love the Hunter class, and you will probably see me post shorter articles on Hunter issues every once in a while all the same.
18. Back to class balancing, do you think that things are really that far off, or is it more about the fabled 5% making a ton of noise about nothing?
I personally don’t think it’s as bad as some people say. Like I said a bit earlier, we really do need all classes to have comparable DPS, healing, and/or tanking abilities as applicable, or else certain classes will naturally fall behind. The uniqueness should come in establishing utility and making that utility useful at as many levels of the game as possible. I think Blizzard is mostly there, it’s just a matter of tweaking now.
19. Do you think the recent announcement about Jeffry “Tigole” Kaplan leaving for a secret project means that Blizzard might be creating their own “WoW Killer”? Even if not, what in your opinion would it take for something to truly knock off WoW from its dominance?
I don’t think Blizzard is looking to kill their own game. That would be like saying Starcraft 2 is meant to kill WoW. You can have multiple games from the same company living in harmony at once. I expect Blizzard will keep both games running as long as it is economically and creatively feasible. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the new game is. I expect they’ve taken a lot of lessons from WoW, some lessons which they can’t apply to WoW without disrupting the game too much or redesigning it from the ground up, and I’m eager to see how they’ll use those lessons in a game built from the ground up. I imagine I’ll play both games, though, as will a lot of people.
To knock WoW from its dominance is going to take time more than anything. The market is Blizzard’s to lose. They have a lot of momentum with all thier subscribers, enough that even Ghostcrawler is telling people it’s OK to play other games. A lot of gamers and non-gamers who never would have touched an MMO are playing World of Warcraft.
20. Final question. From your days as a Hunter to now being a Death Knight, what have been you most precious and treasured moments?
It’s been the people, most of all. I joined WoW with a group of people I knew from elsewhere on the web, and we’ve had a lot of fun together, strengthening our friendships and meeting new friends. Defeating dungeon and raid bosses or completing epic questlines with them, uncovering new lore or questlines in game, doing weird silly dungeon runs with them like clearing lowbie instances on our alts with ravagers from Herod, fun little RP events like fishing trips and feasts, those are what I treasure most. Sharing fun and experiences with my friends.
Well again I want to thank you Daniel for giving up some of your precious time for us at the Lodge. It was a true honor.
The honor’s all mine. Thanks for having me.
*edited – Misspelled my good friend Lassirra’s name and left out the link to The Hunter’s Mark.
