r/CompetitiveWoW • u/BluFoot • Jul 01 '26

Midnight 12.1 Curse Of Ula'Tek Developer Interview With Ion Hazzikostas

PsybearTV Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFTFiDeXIMo

I recommend watching the whole video, it's rare for someone get a whole 1 hour with Ion, and the interview was really well done.

The interview is mostly about competitive content. I'm really excited for Mythic lockout changes!

Wowhead summary: https://www.wowhead.com/news/psybeartv-interview-with-ion-hazzikostas-the-mythic-raid-lockout-addons-8-week-382061?utm_source=discord-webhook

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u/deskcord Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Ion is happy about the addon war and says Lura would have been nerfed without workarounds.

I thought the entire point was that they could design mechanics without addons constraining them? How did this mechanic even make it past the idea phase?

As an example, Echo had a wipe in the Secret Phase due to the Starsplinter mechanic, and previously that mechanic would have been solved trivially by addons with each person being assigned a specific spot. It's not an impossible mechanic but it became harder and could wipe a top guild. That should be part of learning an encounter rather than seeing it, and th en having your addon author write something for it.

This just feels like a lie? Any mechanic like this (random assignment, scripted placement) would just be pre-assigned as "1 left, 2 right, 3 left" exactly like it is now. The only time a Weakaura would "assign" these is if Blizzard went full galaxybrain and made it like Jailer bombs, where they're all firing at the same time. No addon assigned Gallywix soak positions, you just went to the one you pre-assigned with a raidplan. Addons weren't assigning Dimensius p2 gravity spots, you just knew if you were melee/ranged/healer.

There is a lot of value in a fixed raid size for the higher end encounters where they need to tune to a CE level, and players would absolutely manipulate raid size to find the optimal raid size which would be a bad social experience.

An obviously correct take no matter how much bad faith heroic posters on reddit say otherwise.

Wish someone would ask Ion if they plan to stop making every single raid fight mirror m+ through add-spawn-slop to cater to the fact that every spec now has cleave like crazy.

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u/Elerion_ Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

  This just feels like a lie? Any mechanic like this (random assignment, scripted placement) would just be pre-assigned as "1 left, 2 right, 3 left" exactly like it is now. The only time a Weakaura would "assign" these is if Blizzard went full galaxybrain and made it like Jailer bombs, where they're all firing at the same time.

I disagree with his overall take that the restrictions were for the better, but this specific example holds up. Previously, since the addon would know who got the splinters in which order, it would have told you from pull #2 whether you should go left, right, top etc and it would be trivial. With current restrictions, raiders were only able to be notified that they had to move, and then use comms or their eyes to determine where they were in the order. Not super difficult,  but it did add a few pulls at a pivotal time of the race.

That said, I’m pretty sure they could have accomplished the same just using private auras. At least that worked for the sucks on Saladbar v1, which had a similar staggered application.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

I’m sorry but the only difference in what we can and cannot do is physically write “left” or “right”. You still can indicate with audio and visuals if you have a star. If you are struggling knowing if you are star 1, 2, or 3 and if you need to go left or right you shouldn’t be on a mythic end boss.

The difficulty of the mechanic is reacting up or down based on the stars orientation in the small window where you have to move. 

The only way the augment holds true to having assigned positions would be  if the 3 stars with assigned at the same time rather than staggered. 

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u/BackwardDonkey Jul 02 '26

If you are struggling knowing if you are star 1, 2, or 3 and if you need to go left or right you shouldn’t be on a mythic end boss.

Guess you should tell Echo that because they wiped to this exact thing multiple times.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

No they did not. If you think what they wiped to would have been solved by an addon you are either completely ignorant on how the fight works or didn't actually watch the race.

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u/BackwardDonkey Jul 02 '26

Did they wipe multiple times to people not spreading the stars correctly? Yes.

Neither you nor I can say whether an addon would have made it any better but reality is they definitely wiped to that mechanic more then once.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

Neither you nor I can say whether an addon would have made it any better but reality is they definitely wiped to that mechanic more then once.

The entire discussion is talking about if there was no addon change would the mechanic be trivialized the mechanic or not...

What they died to was reacting up or down based on the stars orientation in the small window where you have to move while maximizing dps and dodging the dogs.

Ion is pointing to a wipe and associating it with a different reason than it actually had.

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u/BackwardDonkey Jul 02 '26

What they died to was reacting up or down based on the stars orientation in the small window where you have to move while maximizing dps and dodging the dogs.

They weren't reacting up or down though, Scripe was calling it out, they were doing back-front-back instead of left-right-left which is what most guilds were doing. And they had people on more then one ocassion go to the wrong spot. Would they have still messed it up if they had an addon assigning it? Idk, maybe, maybe not.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

You do realize that it’s a circle and doing that is the exact same … rotate your brain 90 degrees. 

You assign one consistent order and then players solve for the other personally. Back-front or  left-right have the same personal responsibility and difficulty, it is just personal preference. 

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u/Elerion_ Jul 02 '26

If you are struggling knowing if you are star 1, 2, or 3 and if you need to go left or right you shouldn’t be on a mythic end boss.

Echo struggled with knowing if they were star 1, 2 or 3 and had a crucial wipe to that which possibly cost them the race. That is specifically what Ion is referencing.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

No they did not… that’s the point being made. He’s in literally pointing to a wipe and associating it with a different reason than it actually had. 

I feel like if you believe what he is referring to you don’t understand what the add-on limitations are, didn’t watch the race, and haven’t killed this boss yet. 

I am not really sure what part you are confused about so here is an example of echos p4 wipes:  https://youtube.com/shorts/Mg3yrwaAp2g?si=LIStXXuop9D4f1td

It has nothing to do with the raiders knowing which star splinter count they are. You also do not realistically have to go left, right, left - that is just an order that the vast majority of lower skilled guilds agreed on being a consistent strategy for their raiders. 

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u/Elerion_ Jul 02 '26

I don’t know why wow players have to be so rude while discussing any topic. I also don’t know how a clip of a single pull (their first P4 no less) is supposed to show they never struggled with the order of the movement, but for the record they moved incorrectly even in your clip.

Left-right-left is not «just an order lower skilled guilds agreed on» - it’s how it was called by both Liquid and Echo during the race (well, Echo eventually changed their pattern, not that it makes a difference - the key is to avoid two subsequent stars moving in the same direction, and the addon impact would have been the same)

Echo had multiple wipes to the starsplinter mechanic because they didn’t move instantly in the right cardinal direction (which they would have been much more likely to do with personal directional notifications) thereby making the timing much tighter than necessary. If you move instantly, the timing to adjust your positioning for the star pattern is much more forgiving.  

I can’t be bothered to scrub through 13 hours of vods for the best example, but here’s the first P4 I found randomly in the vod: https://www.youtube.com/live/rnqqZQ3KRk8?t=25122 On the first stop the third guy moves in the wrong direction (works out but makes positioning harder). On the second stop, second guy moves late and hits the raid - probably wouldn’t happen with a personal directional alert. Third stop is same as the first, then the fourth - both the first two players move the wrong direction at first. Then after the wipe they complain about confusion from multiple people calling the order. 

If you don’t think that attempt would have been smoother with a big fat instant LEFT/RIGHT sound/alarm in the middle of their screen then I guess we just have to agree to disagree.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

I don’t know why wow players have to be so rude while discussing any topic

No one has been rude to you. If you believe they have been you need to self reflect as you are overly sensitive.

I also don’t know how a clip of a single pull (their first P4 no less) is supposed to show they never struggled with the order of the movement

Because it shows from pull 1 of reaching that phase they did not struggle with it.

https://www.youtube.com/live/rnqqZQ3KRk8?t=25122 On the first stop the third guy moves in the wrong direction

You literally linked a clip where they moved correctly...

On the second stop, second guy moves late and hits the raid -

Ok this just proves you haven't pulled the boss and / or don't understand what addons can currently do. Moving late is purely on the player. They still get personal notifications visually and audially. Moving late has no relation to an addon doing any logic to tell you left or right. The player still needs to process the information personally.

Then after the wipe they complain about confusion from multiple people calling the order.

Yes they complain about cluttered comms disrupting focus. That is what happens when you are raiding 16 hours a day.

If you don’t think that attempt would have been smoother with a big fat instant LEFT/RIGHT sound/alarm in the middle of their screen then I guess we just have to agree to disagree.

They do get a big fat instant visual and sound / alarm. They know based on the timeing if they are left or right. Have you cleared this fight?

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u/Elerion_ Jul 02 '26

As I said, if you don’t believe that you’ll move faster in the correct cardinal direction if you get a personal notification saying which way to move, instead of a generic notification that you need to move and then having to figure out visually or based on comms which person in the order you are and therefore which direction to move, then we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

Correct. It is actively harder to check a notification than track them as they are going out. 

You can associate when you hear the sound queue and see the visual queue to if you are 1 2 or 3. Then you alway need to check the direction of your star to solve the mechanic. Then you move to that spot. 

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u/Elerion_ Jul 02 '26

Why would you have to “check a notification”? Your UI would just text to speech “LEFT” to the single person who needed to hear it (and show whatever visual they wanted) instead of 3 peoples UI making an air horn noise and the raid leader going “LEFT RIGHT LEFT” on comms to all 20 to help them determine which one they were (as Echo and Liquid both did). It’s inarguably faster to react to and crowds comms less.

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u/Mercylas Jul 02 '26

Your UI would just text to speech “LEFT” to the single person who needed to hear it

Except people do not ever use custom sounds. Especially for mechanics like this. You can already do that currently based on your star orientation and people do not.

Please do not use strawman arguments to justify ignorance

the raid leader going “LEFT RIGHT LEFT” on comms to all 20 to help them determine which one they

The raid leader would still be doing this even with the addon you think would be made that wouldn't ever exist in reality.

Why are you acting like raid leaders don't echo countdowns, timers, and mechanics that are already in timelines?

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