For Janthir Wilds I was tasked with bringing our PvP mount into the PvE version of the game. Meaning that a mount known for being used in a combat focused version of the game would be used in the Open World to engage in fights with all of our creatures. I was given the direction to make sure it retained a lot of what made the Warclaw unique in PvP, so I leaned into the idea of increasing the intensity of the mount's abilities.

In the first phase of the project I did a lot of research into how players are already using the mount in PvP. I found a lot of players used it to quickly traverse then start an fight with the enemy. I then worked with the lead of the Quest / Mission design team to sync on what the wider team had been expecting from the Warclaw's toolkit. Once I had all the information I needed I drafted up a prototype plan and designed MVP version of the Warclaw's final target design. My goal would be to create a combat forward mount that could also be utilized in many highly unique ways for quests.

It's combat abilities would be used much like calvary being able to charge in, do some damage, then disengage to charge in again or just have the player dismount. This would make it unique to use, especially compared to the recently newly beloved Skyscale which is a more traversal and ranged combat focused mount. I was also told that the mount needed a unique traversal mechanic and it seemed like a double jump would work with the new planned maps / be slightly easier to implement.

Below are the abilities which I adapted or newly designed.

Lance

This skill was originally used to dismount enemy players in the PvP version of the game, effectively acting like a stun attack with a long cooldown.

So for the PvE version I designed the lance would be a type of fight starter, with the player hurling a massive spear to do a lot of damage and push an creature back / stunning it. The cooldown would be around a minute forcing the player to use their other skills to keep up the pressure or choose to dismount.

Through playtesting I found that players weren't really using the lance like this and instead were throwing it at any target they saw without much thought then remaining on the mount. So seeing that players were using it almost as an exploratory poke attack I changed it to do less damage, not do push back, and gave the player a total of three shots at a time with a faster per shot cooldown. This was well received and players started to also then use it while jumping which led to more fun use cases. It was then later changed to do more damage against the shield of higher ranking enemies, giving it even more of a niche that encouraged players to start fights while mounted.

Chain Pull

This ability was the most complicated to redesign and implement. The version in PvP is a complicated skill which is used to break down the doors of bases. It is a two part skill which uses two different animations. Since there are no doors, and were no planned doors, in the PvE version the skill was changed to be more about pulling targeted enemies towards the player in a quick pull animation (which was requested and detailed to animation team). I also designed it to do a large amount of damage to higher ranking enemy shields. This damage would be helpful in open world boss fights and give players, who can’t usually break enemy shields, a new option when fighting.

However, I also designed the chain pull to specifically be used on objects, similar to how it worked in the PvP version, so this could open up possibilities in our quests. I also worked with other quest and combat designers to make the chain pull work as a central mechanic in defeating the new world bosses. The players used the Warclaw and this skill to wrap up the bosses like the AT-AT fight in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Damage while Dashing

This attack was largely unchanged through out development. It was inspired by the Rollerbeetle's damage when it dashes to go extremely fast across the world, however the Warclaw is designed to be more responsive and quick attacker. So, I designed this attack to be specifically used to dash through crowds of enemies, this puts the player at a risk of being dismounted but when used right it can significantly damage lower level enemies before needing to dismount. This attack didn't change through playtesting except through minor balancing adjustments.

Damage when Landing

This was inspired by a quest in the game where players could stomp on creatures to do damage. The original version of this skill was super fun and was used a lot, maybe a bit too much. It quickly encouraged the wrong behavior and was abused by players even when at low damage levels. So, we decided that "damage while dashing" was functionally serving the same niche, so we instead used the functionality for a unique Warclaw centric quest in the expansion.

Sniff

This skill was originally used in the PvP version of the game to find enemy players, an extremely useful skill which had a high cooldown. So I designed with the original intention of incorporating some level of combat usability, like a predator sniffing out prey. I decided to keep the functionality of finding enemies nearby but also now apply debuffs to enemies in a quite large area around the player. The skill was also designed to be used in quests, and to find buried treasure around the map, so that required the cooldown to be very short. Due to this short cooldown time the application of the debuffs caused performance issues and so we removed it but kept the abilities to see nearby enemies. This functionally took away a combat ability on the mount but in the end it communicated to the player that the Warclaw is a utility mount which can/should be used in world exploration.

Outside of just designing these skills there was a lot of helping other designers understand the mount's systems and also sitting in on specific playtests and advising on how to utilize the Warclaw in the best ways possible. The Warclaw certainly would be less fun to use in fights if it wasn't for these proactive playtests.