What will Blizzard do for the next 4 months?

[Deleted]

Hopefully continue to work on the post-release content they seemed to forget about making with WOD while the beta is kept active to find and deal with bugs / number issues.

[Thetruth1400]

you forgot about little tiny detail called beta phase - for last 2 expansion it took around 5-6 months - 4 mont means we will most probably get very bugged very unfinished product -_-

That's what I thought too. Considering beta hasn't even started, there is no word on it starting soon, and they usually end before the expansion goes live, it looks like this beta is going to be 2 months - 3 tops. Doesn't exactly scream confidence in everything being tested and polished for launch.

As for what they're doing, considering the teams working on patch content and the bug fix / balance are all different teams, I assume they're going to be working on all of it. Hopefully they polish and balance things enough that it doesn't go live as a clusterfuck, but I highly doubt it.

That aside, has there been any word on their "Big addition they aren't talking about" because it seems like that all but up and vanished. Looks like we're left with another sub par expansion with the same old same old in terms of content.

[Shiftyfish]

you forgot about little tiny detail called beta phase - for last 2 expansion it took around 5-6 months - 4 mont means we will most probably get very bugged very unfinished product -_-

the last 2 expansions haven't had the sort of alpha Legion has had either, this "alpha" has pretty much been what we used to call their Beta tests perhaps just with lower numbers of players. the actual Beta phase isn't going to NEED to be as long as the previous ones.

[Lamora]

That aside, has there been any word on their "Big addition they aren't talking about" because it seems like that all but up and vanished. Looks like we're left with another sub par expansion with the same old same old in terms of content.

It's pretty obvious that that referred to the new challenge mode dungeons and world quests. They talked about those plenty at Blizzcon and ever since.

[Deleted]

That's what I thought too. Considering beta hasn't even started, there is no word on it starting soon, and they usually end before the expansion goes live, it looks like this beta is going to be 2 months - 3 tops. Doesn't exactly scream confidence in everything being tested and polished for launch.

As for what they're doing, considering the teams working on patch content and the bug fix / balance are all different teams, I assume they're going to be working on all of it. Hopefully they polish and balance things enough that it doesn't go live as a clusterfuck, but I highly doubt it.

That aside, has there been any word on their "Big addition they aren't talking about" because it seems like that all but up and vanished. Looks like we're left with another sub par expansion with the same old same old in terms of content.

I believe that addition was the world quest system, or 'adventure mode'
Which might also have to do something with the demon invasion in wetlands, barrens,etc what doesnt seem to be part of preexpac event after all

[Deleted]

wut?
what zones are missing?
suramar is already in, same with the broken shore.

Thal'dranath is one, not sure about the other one though. However, Thal'dranath are to be patched in @ a later date. Just like.. was it Faralon?

[ReVnX]

Thal'dranath is one, not sure about the other one though. However, Thal'dranath are to be patched in @ a later date. Just like.. was it Faralon?

Or the Isle of Thunder
Or the Timeless Isle

[Raetary]

Thal'dranath is one, not sure about the other one though. However, Thal'dranath are to be patched in @ a later date. Just like.. was it Faralon?

or like, you know, the isle of thunder.

[Echo of Soul]

you forgot about little tiny detail called beta phase - for last 2 expansion it took around 5-6 months - 4 mont means we will most probably get very bugged very unfinished product -_-

Yeah not many people have been let in to alpha to test stuff. They need a real beta test once all the systems are in place and kinda finished.

[talwynn]

What will blizz do in the next 4 months? Finish Legion and rake in a ton of cash from Hearthstone and Overwatch.

[Raynre Valence]

Prepatch - Still no sign of the world events.
Professions - Still in an odd place, lots of placeholder stuff.
Loot tables - Lots of copy/paste and yet to be named items still in there.
Artifact weapons - still need to tweak a bunch of abilities, which will lead into-
Balancing - We're going to need more than 2 raid bosses a week to begin even attempting to balance. This includes PVP focused events, dungeons, raids, AND solo.

[druenos]

you forgot about little tiny detail called beta phase - for last 2 expansion it took around 5-6 months - 4 mont means we will most probably get very bugged very unfinished product -_-

I think the Alpha is the beta test. This alpha has gone far beyond what an alpha is supposed to be.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Thal'dranath is one, not sure about the other one though. However, Thal'dranath are to be patched in @ a later date. Just like.. was it Faralon?

Farahlon was replaced with Tanaan, but Suramar's approaching being ready with 4 months to go, and contains the second raid, so we need to be able to access it when they open it like we did Blackrock Foundry. They do have to actually release SOMETHING in at least one patch.

[ReVnX]

Yeah not many people have been let in to alpha to test stuff. They need a real beta test once all the systems are in place and kinda finished.

A couple of waves of invites for stress testing and that is solved. I really don't get some people's obsession over a name

[Osmeric]

They'll finally add a dance studio! (*)


(*) only for feline non-combat pets

[Kauko]

They will stress the hell out of the 7.0 and even prepare 7.1.

I just hope they wont make the same mistake for the 3rd time in a row with releasing patches to fast. And then at the end we will again have a 12months of the same content patch. They were way to fast with Highmaul after BRF. The same was with SoO after ToT na also with ToT.

I don't get blizzard with this, they are making the game more friendly for casuals, but they are releasing content patches faster because of Hardcore Raiders. So at the end, casuals barely touch heroic raids and they already have to do the next raid because the old one is obsolete... What is then the point of so many difficulties if most of people don't even have a chance to get it on farm?

And, they HAVE to remove catchup gear. It achieves nothing else than the people that come in the middle of the expansion, start whining they have nothing to do...

[Hyrja]

Legion is still far from done. They have to balance/fine tune/test everything they added (artifacts, raids, dungeons, quests, endgame content, zones, art, legendaries, pre-patch, classes, music, cinematics, pvp). So yeah, that's what they'll do in the following months.

[Adramelch]

That aside, has there been any word on their "Big addition they aren't talking about" because it seems like that all but up and vanished. Looks like we're left with another sub par expansion with the same old same old in terms of content.

It's pretty obvious that that referred to the new challenge mode dungeons and world quests. They talked about those plenty at Blizzcon and ever since.

I believe that addition was the world quest system, or 'adventure mode'
Which might also have to do something with the demon invasion in wetlands, barrens,etc what doesnt seem to be part of preexpac event after all

They talked about all of that during Blizzcon though. I would bet on the new animations being that feature. They were never talked about and just appeared in game.

[nazrakin]

They will stress the hell out of the 7.0 and even prepare 7.1.

I just hope they wont make the same mistake for the 3rd time in a row with releasing patches to fast. And then at the end we will again have a 12months of the same content patch. They were way to fast with Highmaul after BRF. The same was with SoO after ToT na also with ToT.

I don't get blizzard with this, they are making the game more friendly for casuals, but they are releasing content patches faster because of Hardcore Raiders. So at the end, casuals barely touch heroic raids and they already have to do the next raid because the old one is obsolete... What is then the point of so many difficulties if most of people don't even have a chance to get it on farm?

And, they HAVE to remove catchup gear. It achieves nothing else than the people that come in the middle of the expansion, start whining they have nothing to do...

I wouldn't say SoO came too quickly, we had 6 months of ToT which is pretty much the standard time for a mid expac raid. Where they messed up MoP pacing was definitely the start. HoF/ToES launching a couple weeks after MSV made MSV pretty pointless since it dropped lower ilvl gear and no tier.

I do agree with that they should pump the brakes on catch up gear now that they have enough difficulties that it should be easy for anyone to naturally progress through to the end of the game.

[Atticusw]

Honestly I was on the "alpha isn't beta" group until recently. The game is pretty much finished with only a few features left to implement. It is, for all intents and purposes, in beta state. I'm sure once the campaigns are finalized and pvp is in place there'll be a wipe and multiple beta realms will come up.