World Of Warcraft Game Designer Dives Deep Into Mists Of Pandaria’s Warlock Revamp

Each WoW expansion had at least one key feature that it was known for The Burning Crusade had the Outlands, Wrath of the Lich King had the Death Knight, and Cataclysm had its world-rending event. For Mists of Pandaria, it came in the form of a Warlock revamp which proved to be one of the most popular and successful class revamps in WoW history.

Game designer Alexander Brazie explains their motivations for redesigning the class in extensive detail in a three-part blog post from way back in 2018 that Wowhead recently dug up, and it all boils down to the waning popularity of the curse flinging class.

“[…] The Warlock was the first class to break the upper limit so severely that the class’ playrate dropped, becoming 42% less popular than other classes from Wrath of the Lich King into Cataclysm,” recounts Brazie. “It was too complex, too unwieldy – and too much same across specialization. […] It became clear to me that only dramatic and significant effort could restore the class in the eyes of the playerbase.”

He, however, noted that rebuilding a class is far more challenging than creating one because they needed to overcome years of expectations and will inevitably have to cut out someone’s favorite feature. He was also warned that the Warlock community were a prickly bunch when it came to class changes and had little trust for the developers.

To avoid a potential backlash, he recruited the help of a handful of trusted members of the Warlock community at the risk of having their plans leaked, and we all know how leaky Blizzard can be. His efforts to involve at least part of the community fortunately paid off.

“My goal was to align mechanic and fantasy,” Brazie continued. “This meant untangling all of the noise and garbage that had built up around the class since its release in November 2004.” He says that redesigning the Affliction spec was a whole lot easier than Demonology.

At the time, the Demonology spec was like playing a minigame that involved pushing the right buttons when the game told you to push them while everything else happened around you. Following the revamp, it was changed to be more rhythmic with a consistent core rotation that Brazie likens to “playing a musical harmony.” The Destruction spec was also completely overhauled to shift its focus from mana management to health management instead.

Despite the community’s initial apprehensions to the changes, it all worked out in the end. “[…] We witnessed a remarkable influx of new players into the Warlock class, breathing new life into its essence and revitalizing its appeal,” Brazie said. “To this day, more than a decade after I did this warlock overhaul, I still get nostalgic and thankful emails and presents from warlock players. This shows that when you make an immersive experience that connects with the players, they will remember.”

The blogs are worth a read if you’ve got time to kill, especially if you’re a Warlock player or are simply interested in the process of how the World of Warcraft team redesigns its classes or the process of class revamps in general.

There’s currently no indication that Blizzard is planning to relaunch Mists of Pandaria in World of Warcraft Classic, but it will likely be the next step in Classic’s evolution once Wrath of the Lich King Classic and Cataclysm Classic have run their course.