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by Published on 2022-04-23 01:40 PM

More World of Warcraft Dragonflight Interviews
Several fan sites interviewed the developers about World of Warcraft Dragonflight over the week.



Warcraft Radio Interview with Steve Danuser
  • The stone watcher seen in the Dragonflight cinematic is named Watcher Korinos.
  • Watcher Korinos will be present on the Dragon Isles. We will see him while questing and get to know him better.
  • One of the biggest themes we will see in Dragonflight is "legacy."
  • Dragons outside of the main 5 flights will definitely be part of the expansion.
  • There will be a lot of localized threats like the gnolls, but also bigger ones like the Djaradin.
  • There is a lot of gaps in the Chronicle narrative about the dragonflights and throughout the story we will discover that many proto-dragons did not feel being infused by the Titans was a good idea.
  • There are four dragon leaders in the primalist movement that are on par with the aspects, each embodying the elemental forces that they embraced. This movement was of those that rejected the Titan's gifts and wanted to remain unfettered. These philosophical differences led to war.
  • The Dragon Aspects defeated and imprisoned these Primal Incarnates long ago, but they are in danger of being released now that the land is waking up.
  • The dragons will have to reflect on what it means to be tethered to these cosmic forces and the Titan's order magic. Should they renew these bonds or find a different way forward?
  • The fact that Nozdormu knows that he will transform into Murozond at some point weighs heavily on high mind and he's having trouble clearly seeing the time ways right now.
  • The blue dragonflight is scattered, and Kalecgos's story will revolve around returning to the Isles to find not many of them there. How will he rebuild his flight?
  • The green dragonflight story will follow Merithra as she tries to take up the mantle of Ysera.
  • The black dragonflight story will revolve around Wrathion and how his questionable choices/birth will affect his future with the flight.
  • We will also see the relationship between Wrathion and Ebonhorn grow as they learn from each other.
  • The Dragonscale Expedition is the name of the combined forces of the Explorer's League and the Reliquary.
  • Patch 9.2.5 will start to show some changes that have been going on on Azeroth while we were away. Some of it has been available on the PTR, but some hasn't happened yet.
  • The pre-patch events will help tell the story of what's going on back on Azeroth and how they two factions have been faring with new leadership/
  • Uldaman is getting a modern revamp that has the right amount of nostalgia while setting some new light on it.
  • There will be new sections of Uldaman to explore as Alexstraza sends us to find discs that contain the knowledge of Keeper Tyr.


Buffed Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
  • There was a great war between the dragon factions around the time of Galakrond's fall.
  • The Aspects we know were the victors of the war, but with the loss of their power during Cataclysm and the reawakening of these primalist foes, they are less positioned to fight them off this time. This is why they need our help.
  • There will be major villains in Dragonflight, but it will feel like Mists of Pandaria where it is unclear who they are at first.
  • Khadgar will be joining us in the Dragon Isles.
  • Anduin's future in the story will have some questions answered during Patch 9.2.5. He has been changed forever by his experience with Domination and will likely be stepping down as King of Stormind for the time being.
  • The factions will retain an uneasy armistice moving forward, with groups that want peace and others who won't so forget the past. They will still retain separate control of their lands and you won't see orcs running around Stormwind anytime soon.
  • There is going to be significant endgame areas across all 4 zones.
  • The zones are much larger than the zones of Shadowlands.
  • The zones have a lot more depth and open space.
  • Normal mounts will be useable on the ground, but not for flying at the start.
  • Sargeras's sword in Silithus is just a big splinter at this point. The story will be focusing on the Dragon Isles, but the old zones won't have any significant new stuff in Dragonflight.
  • The Evoker brings a new style to ranged DPS in the same way the Demon Hunter brought it to melee.
  • The team is playing with ways to make the Dracthyr's visage form usable in combat as well outside of using dragon abilities.
  • You will get 1 talent point per level, alternating between a class point and a spec point.
  • Many of the covenant abilities will be reintroduced in the talent trees.
  • Shadowlands will be added to the 10-60 Chromie Time leveling after the expansion ends.
  • The old UI texture options will not be available to toggle with the new UI.
  • Crafting tables will be required for making important items.
  • The team would like to allow cross-server trading, but there is a lot more work required to make sure it has no exploits or problems.
  • No news on whether or not BlizzCon will return.


Blizzplanet Interview with Jackie Wiley and Tina Wang
  • There are no Dragonflight Covenants in the expansion, meaning there are no quests locked behind different Covenant systems or anything like that.
  • The team is still talking about what to do with alts for leveling, but they want players to choose how to level them instead of having something as specific as Threads of Fate. This includes dungeons and side quests throughout the zones outside of the main campaign.
  • Dragonflight does not take place that long after Shadowlands. There is no crazy time jump or "wake up" moment.
  • Dracythr don't have progression to their personal form of flying in their dragonoid form, but they will be able to jump off and dive.
  • As of now, Dracthyr are always in dragon form when in combat.
  • There is a lot more customization to the Dracthyr form than what was shown in the video.
    • Players can expect the ability to make the torso more slender or slightly bulkier as well.
    • The armor can be customized in the Barbershop.
    • Dracthyr forms will show your shoulders, tabards, and belts.
    • The visage form will show all armor.
    • You can customize face shape, snout, etc.
  • Drackthyr Evokers will be playable in the pre-patch.
  • There are 4 different dragon companion body types available.
    • Proto-drake
    • Veloci-drake (pterrodax body type)
    • Wyvern-drake
    • Drake-drake
  • The Veloci-drake form has some wildly different snout customizations, including rhino beaks or pterodactyl looking.
  • Drake customizations will drop from many different sources. There is an overwhelming amount of different unlockable options.
  • Drake customizations are completely cosmetic and don't affect Dragon Riding in any way.
  • Work orders will let players who don't have the profession include BOP crafting items for the crafter to use.
  • Specializations will have trees to work through overtime.
  • Tree points include options to increase crafting speed, inspiration (chance of making additional dupes of the same item), crit crafting (better quality), etc.
  • New players will still start in Exile's Reach, then use Battle for Azeroth zones as their 10-60 experience before going directly to the Dragon Isles.
  • The team is still discussing how to address Soul Shape for the future.
  • Dragon Riding is currently only available in the Dragon Isles.
  • Valdrakken will have an iconic area much like the top of Wyrmrest Temple where the dragon leaders will all be in their dragon forms.
  • Valdrakken is the highest point of the Dragon Isles. It will be really fun to jump off or it and soar to different areas on your dragon.
  • There will be new docks in each faction capitol city for the expedition.
  • They haven't forgotten about Heritage Armor and now that we are returning to Azeroth there is room to tell those stories.
  • The team views Archeology as a content offering now over a profession.
  • The team is discussing new race/class combos.
  • No confirmation on duck mount as of now.


MMORPG Interview with Tina Wang and Jackie Wiley
  • They hope to lift the Dracthyr race/class restrictions in the future, but it is just a hope at this point.
  • Every person's drake will likely never look the same because the customizations are so vast.
  • The Ui for dragon customization is "essentially a dragon barbershop."
  • The team doesn't want to repeat the same issues that arose from Threads of Fate. They want players to choose what they want to do to level.


JudgeHype Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
  • The pre-patch events will likely last two weeks.
  • The Uldaman revamp will be available during the pre-patch at level 60.
  • The Dragon Isles are located in northeastern Azeroth.
  • The Dragon Isles are one of the biggest continents Blizzard has ever made.
  • Tyrande will also play a role in the story.
  • We will learn more about Galakrond.
  • A few small changes will take place in Kalmindor and the Eastern Kingdoms. These involve the presence of certain NPCS and the evolution of the Forsaken.
  • The ideal length for the Race to World First is around 10-11 days, but balancing for the top guilds is a real challenge.
  • There are no Azerite or Artifact power systems in Dragonflight, but a progressions system will obviously be a part of it.
  • There will not be dragon forms for druids.
  • Blizzard will continue to control the time-frame of certain unlocks. They like to have some things unlocked to all players at the same time.


PCGamesN Interview with Ion Hazzikostas
  • The story of Dragonflight will be more traditional and less high concept like Shadowlands.
  • The team is trying to return to a more grounded adventures with core high fantasy concepts.
  • There will still be cosmic adventures in the future with great threats.
  • Dragonflight's story will not require you to have played Shadowlands to understand it.
by Published on 2022-04-22 07:29 PM

WoW Dragonflight Alpha - Encrypted Build 10.0.0.43342
An encrypted build has been shipped for Dragonflight Alpha. Note that datamining is not possible yet.

  • Shadowlands was announced November 1, 2019, hit wowdev on February 19th, 2020, went into alpha on April 8 2020, and was released on November 23rd, 2020.
  • Battle for Azeroth was announced on November 3, 2017, hit wowdev on December 16th, 2017 and public beta on January 26, 2018.

Code:
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us/CDNConfig	6455f2f33e2a209472090035bb52e6a0
us/BuildId	43342
us/VersionsName	10.0.0.43342
eu/BuildConfig	0339757809df5e54b31727f19db0fc53
eu/CDNConfig	6455f2f33e2a209472090035bb52e6a0
eu/BuildId	43342
eu/VersionsName	10.0.0.43342
cn/BuildConfig	0339757809df5e54b31727f19db0fc53
cn/CDNConfig	6455f2f33e2a209472090035bb52e6a0
cn/BuildId	43342
cn/VersionsName	10.0.0.43342
kr/BuildConfig	0339757809df5e54b31727f19db0fc53
kr/CDNConfig	6455f2f33e2a209472090035bb52e6a0
kr/BuildId	43342
kr/VersionsName	10.0.0.43342
tw/BuildConfig	0339757809df5e54b31727f19db0fc53
tw/CDNConfig	6455f2f33e2a209472090035bb52e6a0
tw/BuildId	43342
tw/VersionsName	10.0.0.43342
by Published on 2022-04-21 09:09 PM

Hazelnutty Interview with Ion Hazzikostas


  • Borrowed Power
    • The team reflected on the borrowed power systems of the past few expansions and admit that giving players power and then taking it away at the end didn't feel good.
    • As they thought of a way to move forward without borrowed power systems, they realized that the only talent system used to fill those gaps by giving you something new every expansion that would not be taken away at the end.
    • The goal of the new talent system is to grow on it in further expansions with more layers and rows.
    • They want the new talent system to be sustainable for at least a few expansions and what to do at that point is an issue to solve then.
  • Reputation and Renown
    • Reputation hasn't changed or evolved much since Vanilla. The path to exalted and rewards were not well structured or visible. Aspects of Renown solved some of these issues, and the team wants to adapt this to end-game structures in Dragonflight. Building Renown will open up more perks with reputations, and it will not necessarily be through structured weekly quests, but more open-ended objectives.
    • Reputation Renown will not unlock more player power except for some gear rewards. It will instead provide cosmetic rewards and perks.
  • Crafting
    • The team doesn't necessarily want gold to be the cost of entry for building a profession like it was in Shadowlands.
    • Specializations will be the main way of finding a niche in a profession to separate yourself from the rest.
    • Not only can you specialize in a certain skill of a profession such as armorsmithing, but specific crafts as well.
    • Hardcore crafters will eventually be able to make everything, but it will take time.
    • Players who don't want to engage with the system will still be able to utilize professions, but the goal isn't to force players to interact with the system.
    • To keep crafted gear relevant, the team wants there to be options equivalent to mythic raiding level, but players will never just be able to go to an auction house and buy sets of gear at max item level. It will involve BOP crafting items or recipes that are obtained from higher level content.
    • Players will be able to use their own BOP crafting items to get gear crafted by other players by utilizing work orders.
  • Legendaries
    • Legendaries as they have existed in Legion and Shadowlands are not going to be in Dragonflight.
    • These types of legendaries were a way to fill the gap left by the removal of talent trees and tier sets.
    • This is not to say that we will never see legendaries again. Thematic items that drop such as Sylvanas's bow will still be added where it makes sense.
  • Dracthyr and Flying
    • Dracthyr will be able to perform the basics of dragon riding in their dragon form from the start. The unlocked abilities earned over time will also have to use their dragon companion, but while in their visage form.
    • Dracthyr can glide and get a little bit of lift in a manner like Demon Hunters, but cannot fly outside of the Dragon Isles in their form.
  • Mounts
    • Dragon Riding is not replacing mounts in Dragon Isles. There will still be plenty of new ones to collect.
    • A feature of Dragon Riding that Ion brought up is learning to instantly port back to a quest hub after completing a quest, much like the whistles of Legion and BFA.
    • The team is implementing methods to address anyone who is prone to motion sickness in the Dragon Riding system.
  • Player Housing
    • The team also wants player housing, but it is a big undertaking to get it right. If it was to be implemented, it would have to span multiple expansions and take a lot of time.
    • Housing will not be coming in Dragonflight.
  • Archeology
    • Archeology needs a fresh coat of paint, but it will not be getting anything new at the launch of Dragonflight.
    • The focus on profession updates is on the main professions currently.
    • The previous iteration of Archeology will not be returning.
  • Pet Battles
    • The team wants to incorporate something different for PvP pet battles, such as setting up a pet blockade and testing it against an opponent.
    • Changes will not be made at launch to the current pet battle systems, however.
  • "Mid-range" Class
    • Mid-range means 25-30 yards, but will also have plenty of normal ranged attacks.
  • Seasonal Mythic Plus Dungeons
    • Ion wants to release some of the talent trees to the community before Alpha.
    • Dragonflight will launch with 8 new dungeons, but only 4 will be available for Mythic Plus at launch. 4 dungeons from previous expansions will also be available for M+ in season 1.
    • The goal is to have 4 Dragonflight dungeons and 4 dungeons from previous expansions available for Mythic Plus every season so that players don't farm the same gear every season.
    • Shadowlands dungeons will not be included in the rotation at the start because they are too recent.
by Published on 2022-04-20 10:48 PM

Ion Hazzikostas on Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1 Itemization and Dungeon Pool
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thanks for raising the concern! Itemization is definitely a big piece of how this will all need to fit together in order to work, and the goal would be for each season’s dungeon pool to provide deep and varied loot options. In some cases, that may mean modifying or supplementing loot from older expansions’ dungeons. If we were to mix in M+ versions of Mists of Pandaria dungeons alongside new Dragonflight dungeons, for example, we’d make sure that the resulting seasonal pool provides full itemization coverage for all specs. It’s likely that we’d also take a close look at trinkets in particular from Mists dungeons, which weren’t necessarily created or tuned with cutting-edge performance in mind (since back then dungeon difficulty capped out at Heroic; Challenge Mode only gave cosmetic rewards).

If we ended up landing in a situation where a specific item from the prior season’s dungeons was beating higher item level alternatives from the following season, we’d make tuning adjustments to correct that. You shouldn’t need to worry about “missable BiS” being a thing. But on the other hand, we’ve heard tons of feedback about how re-farming Soulletting Ruby, IQD, etc., every season hasn’t exactly felt like a compelling progression experience, so we’re excited at the chance to shake things up there.

Aside from a complete itemization refresh from season to season, our hope is for the dungeon gameplay itself to feel fresher, and like a new set of puzzles for the community to solve each season. We’ve seen really mixed (often negative) experiences in the past when we add brand new dungeons into an existing pool of dungeons that the community has already mastered, and try to set them up as equivalent in terms of difficulty and rewards. And while the hardcore M+ community may not experience this issue firsthand, it’s hard to overstate how daunting it can be for someone to try to get into M+ PUGs or try a new role like tanking for the first time deep in an expansion, when the established community is largely focused on routing micro-optimizations and time-saving tech, and groups likely assume complete baseline knowledge of all boss mechanics, positioning, target priority, and so forth.

We’re well aware of the risk that it might be disappointing to not get to experience M+ versions of all eight new Dragonflight dungeons during the first season, but our hope is that mixing in some dungeons that have never before had an M+ component (e.g. Shado-Pan Monastery) will make for a fun new experience there, and that in the long run the complete rotation will make for a much healthier and more dynamic Mythic+ experience over the course of the expansion as a whole.
by Published on 2022-04-20 03:39 PM

Doomfist and Orisa's Tank Overhauls

A New Class Means a New Class Color - Evoker Class Color Revealed
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
For the history of World of Warcraft, different classes have been visually distinguishable in various UI elements by the usage of a specific color that is unique to each class. For example, three different WoW classes can be identified by just glancing at the three following images:





(Mage, Paladin, and Rogue)

Yesterday, we announced the next class that will become a part of the visual feast of WoW classes, the Evoker, and we’ve defined a unique color for Evokers:

#33937F

It looks like this:



And in raid frames alongside the other classes, it looks like this:



We’re looking forward to incorporating the new Evoker class color into every place in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight where it belongs.

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