Josh Greenfield

Josh Greenfield

@aggrend.bsky.social

Developer - WoW Classic @Blizzard - Personal Account - Opinions are my own and all that.

2.8K followers93 following202 posts

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Now that it's out and players are starting to notice: Hunters/Paladins/Warriors who have not yet completed the "Gathering Light" step of the legendary questline will get a single Lightforged Iron from their Scarlet Junkbox every week. This does not require you to have started the questline. /1

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

This means that even if you haven't started the quest from the Ruined Lightforged Blade and/or you haven't started being awarded lightforged iron that drop for you raid team, you can start making progress on this. The idea is that the first 2-3 legendary quests your guild does take 3-4 weeks each /2

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

So as time goes by and your wars/huntes/pals who want this weapon are gathering the iron from their junkboxes when they eventually get the ruined lightforged blade they aren't starting from 0 and its fewer weeks for them to complete. /3

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Additional adjustments to Beatrix are going out soon. For a 2nd boss tuned for 20, she's just a bit too stiff of a challenge. If she was the 5th or 6th boss we'd likely feel differently but this should help smooth out the difficulty curve of the raid a bit while keeping the later bosses hard.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Watching a lot of the back and forth about the raid being too hard and there's a few key things here to consider (in thread below). Before I dive into that though we agree that boss 1 and 2 are likely a bit too hard and have already made some adjustments to make them more manageable. Now, consider:

View full thread
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

You should feel no rush or pressure to get through this content fast. Take your time, share info with each other, and keep at it. It will get easier over time either through you making incremental progress to gear up, or mechanisms we put in to make it easier. But it's been 24h. Let it breathe.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Last thing I'll say is, like everything in SoD, this is an experiment. Finding those boundaries has been important to us and it still is. I appreciate all the feedback we've gotten so far, both positive and critical. We are incredibly excited to see guilds see the entire raid and story play out.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Watching a lot of the back and forth about the raid being too hard and there's a few key things here to consider (in thread below). Before I dive into that though we agree that boss 1 and 2 are likely a bit too hard and have already made some adjustments to make them more manageable. Now, consider:

View full thread
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Anyway, this isn't a "get good" post. This just acknowledgement of some culture shock. We expected this to a degree, and we want to see what you are capable of. If you think it's too hard, fair enough. Give it a bit of time to get figured out by the community and take another shot at it next week.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

We really want your progression through this content to be satisfying and part of satisfaction comes from overcoming a challenge. It's tough to make content that has, in some form or another, been well known for years truly hard. But truly new content deserves a bit more friction.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Watching a lot of the back and forth about the raid being too hard and there's a few key things here to consider (in thread below). Before I dive into that though we agree that boss 1 and 2 are likely a bit too hard and have already made some adjustments to make them more manageable. Now, consider:

View full thread
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

2. The gear in SE is *dramatically* better than Naxx gear. By the time you get your 8/8 set you'll do between ~25 and 40% more damage. At full bis you'll be doing 50%+ more damage. Killing one or two bosses in the first lockout and then 2-3 in the next lockout gets your raid 25+ very strong items.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

3. We have a system in place that, after a time, will allow you to gain a buff that will make it easier (similar to ICC). We don't want to flip this on just yet, but we are discussing timing for it and will likely make an announcement on that soon.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Watching a lot of the back and forth about the raid being too hard and there's a few key things here to consider (in thread below). Before I dive into that though we agree that boss 1 and 2 are likely a bit too hard and have already made some adjustments to make them more manageable. Now, consider:

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

1. No PTR - in contrast to all other level 60 raids, there's not 20 years of pre-knowledge. Figuring out mechanics is a thing that takes time and it's also something classic players have little experience with. If players want truly new classic content, they may need to get used to some prog again.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Working on Season of Discovery has been one of the highlights of my 15 years at blizzard. Super excited for everyone to check out the Scarlet Enclave today!

World of Warcraft@worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com

Join the Classic Dev Team for a look back at Season of Discovery and play Phase 8 now! Watch: https://blizz.ly/4lq8GO9

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

I keep seeing chatter about Scourge Invasions being removed in 1.15.7/Phase 8. This is not a real thing. The PTR sometimes has different configurations than live servers will have. Invasions aren't going anywhere on Tuesday.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

It's been a gut wrenching few days. The sheer scope and scale of these attacks was a cut above anything we've faced before, and the level of disruption was pretty far reaching. It's a tough call, but the only alternative is letting the losers behind these DDoS attacks win, and honestly, fuck that.

WoW Classic Devs@wowclassicdevs.blizzard.com

We just made a post regarding the recent DDoS attacks that have impacted many Blizzard game services and the steps we're taking to help players who lost Hardcore WoW characters. You can find the post here: us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/208... Thank you, as always, for your feedback.

us.forums.blizzard.comIn Response to the DDoS AttacksGreetings, Recently, we have experienced unprecedented distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that impacted many Blizzard game services, including Hardcore realms, with the singular goal of dis...
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

This has been a total blast to work on and I can’t wait for people to check it out.

WoW Classic Devs@wowclassicdevs.blizzard.com

Season of Discovery continues with Phase 8 launching on April 8, followed by the all-new Scarlet Enclave raid launching on April 10 at 1:00 pm PDT! There's a whole lot to discover in this phase, and we're excited to dive in alongside you. More here: worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/2...

worldofwarcraft.blizzard.comSeason of Discovery Phase 8 Goes Live Beginning April 8 - WoWThe journey through Season of Discovery culminates with Phase 8 beginning on April 8! Experience new outdoor content, a new Legendary weapon questline, new stories and surprises, and the Scarlet Encla...
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Normal "New SoD build on PTR" reminder: there's gonna be a LOT of fun datamining today but there's a lot of work-in-progress stuff there, and some stuff might not be what it initially appears to be :)

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Honestly the MTG commander bracket thing seems fine to me. It's light touch, which is good. It would have been very easy to overdesign this and It's great that they didn't. I do suspect that eventually Bracket 3 will end up being the "my deck is power 7" meme of the new system, but that's fine.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

There's a lot of great info in these patch notes if you are just getting home and hopping in. Check it out!

WoW Classic Devs@wowclassicdevs.blizzard.com

Season of Discovery realms are LIVE in NA and Phase 7 has begun! We've posted A LOT of details in the patch notes, including a spoiler-filled explainer on the new Karazhan Crypts dungeon. You can read all about it in our full patch notes for SoD Phase 7 here: us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/205...

us.forums.blizzard.comSeason of Discovery Phase 7 Patch NotesVersion 1.15.6 January 28, 2025 Season of Discovery Phase 7 Scourge Invasions The Scourge Invasion event will begin after the 1.15.6 patch goes live with normal patch maintenance in each region. In...
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Just tossed up a post with some info on Season of Discovery Naxxramas PTR testing and some additional info changes to the Sanctified System, as well as some clarifications on how you'll progress your trinket. Check it out! us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/sea...

us.forums.blizzard.comSeason of Discovery Phase 7 PTR Update - Jan 22 2025Season of Discovery Phase 7 PTR Update Greetings, The WoW Classic team wanted to give a quick update on the status of Phase 7 PTR testing and give you an idea of some changes we have planned for Nax...
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Wanted to share this out real quick. This issue has been a bummer for us as well as anni players, and the team really wanted to do what we could to make up for the inconvenience. We feel this is a great change and hope you enjoy. Thanks for hangin in there with us and apologies for the inconvenience

WoW Classic Devs@wowclassicdevs.blizzard.com

Greetings! We've been reading your feedback and working on hotfixes that are now live, making adjustments to the cost and usage of the Chronoboon Displacer on Anniversary realms. Read all the details here: us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/204... Thank you for all the feedback. Have a great weekend!

us.forums.blizzard.comAnniversary Realms Battleground -- Updated Jan. 17Following up on hotfixes that are now live: The Season of Discovery variant of the Chronoboon Displacer is no longer usable on non-SoD realms. The Era Chronoboon on Classic Era/Anniversary realms no...
Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

Datamining used to make me super nervous because I was terrified people would lose their minds making assumptions based on incomplete info. Now I kinda just say "fuck it let's ball" and just watch the speculation train choo choo down the tracks. It helps that I am giga hyped about what's coming.

Josh Greenfield
@aggrend.bsky.social

AQ Raid testing is back up now. Due to the short notice and Holidays, we are leaving it up through the long weekend. us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/aq-... Also, we've gone ahead and reverted the adjustment to maximum raid sizes, per player feedback. Thanks!

us.forums.blizzard.comAQ Raid Testing - November 26-December 2Today, we opened the Classic Seasonal PTR with Ruins of Ahn’qiraj, Temple of Ahn’qiraj, and Nightmare Grove available for additional testing. Following a great deal of player feedback, we’ve adjusted...