Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nyel]

What does Kul tiras have to do with Dawn?

Emerald Dawn could be Kul Tiras, their flag IS green, after all. Maybe the name Emerald Dawn has something to do with Kul Tiras? Perhaps some kind of movement, crusade, event?

I just quoted his idea and posted a picture related to that...

[Hitei]

I just quoted his idea and posted a picture related to that...

Eh.

The pamphlet specifically elaborates that it's an Emerald sun in the vault of the heavens. My point was more that Kul Tiras has no association with the light, or suns, or dawn. If they wanted to be vague and metaphorically applicable to either the Legion or Kul Tiras, why wouldn't they use something like "Emerald Tide". Everything about KT and the coming expansion points to the sea, darkness and things below.

It would be really strange to then reference Kul Tiras by talking about the light and things up in the sky.

[Deleted]

"vault of the heavens" can't it be Halls of Valor?

[Deleted]

Well, I'd say it's N'zoth ≥ Azshara. It would be strange to fight N'zoth but not Azshara unless she's found a new master who's even bigger than N'zoth (but I really doubt that).

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This is another interesting find!

To be fair to Azshara she very quickly weaseled her way out from Sargeras' thumb to become his partner rather than some meaningless gnat. She always was a deceitful and cunning leader who made good alliances (for her), if she found out about the Void Lords it would be well within her character to dump N'Zoth and go and make a deal with his boss.

[Raetary]

"vault of the heavens" can't it be Halls of Valor?

im fucking dying.


no its not, the "vault of heavens" is the sky, the emerald sun is argus.

[Tartys]

What new features would you guys want to see in an expansion like the one discussed in this thread?

- A new reworked "Artifact system", not based on a spec, but related to the characters
- More flexibility in term of changing spec/talents
- Possibility to save Build talents and link that build to a specific set of equip
- Sub races + more characters customized options

[Nyel]

Eh.

The pamphlet specifically elaborates that it's an Emerald sun in the vault of the heavens. My point was more that Kul Tiras has no association with the light, or suns, or dawn. If they wanted to be vague and metaphorically applicable to either the Legion or Kul Tiras, why wouldn't they use something like "Emerald Tide". Everything about KT and the coming expansion points to the sea, darkness and things below.

It would be really strange to then reference Kul Tiras by talking about the light and things up in the sky.

Well, there are many ways how "Dawn" could relate to Kul'tiras. Either when it has something to do with Emerald Dream / Nightmare or N'zoth is some kind of shadow and he brings the night over Kul'tiras and the efforts to fight him are the "Emerald Dawn". I mean it's not so hard to create references if you need them, metaphors are mostly very vague.

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To be fair to Azshara she very quickly weaseled her way out from Sargeras' thumb to become his partner rather than some meaningless gnat. She always was a deceitful and cunning leader who made good alliances (for her), if she found out about the Void Lords it would be well within her character to dump N'Zoth and go and make a deal with his boss.

Mhm but N'zoth is just a "minion" of the Void Lords, why should she dump him? I mean Void Lords and Old Gods are not enemies...

[Dracullus]

Reveal has nothing to do with Release. They are already working on the expansion. If they reveal now or later, it won't have any big impact on how far away the actual release is.

Was there ever expansion that didn't launched exactly 11-13 months after reveal? After 6 expansions we can tell, yeah, reveal date have something with release date.

It's not coincidence, they want to create as much hype as possible. Waiting for next expansion, reading news about it, discussions about it in media etc. all of this also create hype. In addition, we need proper beta, release just few months after reveal means that we will get untested shit.

There's always a drought, but they are delaying content to pace out that drought. 7.3 will come by late August or early September. The raid will come around Blizzcon. It's possible we get a small 7.4 patch mid-drought just to keep us busy and hyped. We will probably get a few months of no content, but I'm hoping it's not longer than six months this time.

7.3 will come August 29th/30th
7.3.5 will come November 14th/15th
(both of course if they won't fuck up and have to delay patch for week or two)

My point is all patches were planned even before Legion launched. You don't plan content drought.

So my train of thought was:
1) Legion patch schedule is carefuly planned, we won't have content drought longer than 10 months (5 months of usual raid tier length and 5 months "break", so we won't be burned out when next expansion will come).
2) Reveal happen about one year before release
3) Last raid will come November
4) Blizzcon is too late
5) Reveal will happen at Gamescom

So when they gave Kul Tiras hint in 7.3 PTR files, I was totally convinced that Gamescom is time for reveal. Otherwise, what would be the point of this "leak"? They want us to discuss and start hype about new expac now, and they did something less subtle (but "hidden") than Suramar cloak from Kazzak in 6.2.

[Deleted]

Well, there are many ways how "Dawn" could relate to Kul'tiras. Either when it has something to do with Emerald Dream / Nightmare or N'zoth is some kind of shadow and he brings the night over Kul'tiras and the efforts to fight him are the "Emerald Dawn". I mean it's not so hard to create references if you need them, metaphors are mostly very vague.

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Mhm but N'zoth is just a "minion" of the Void Lords, why should she dump him? I mean Void Lords and Old Gods are not enemies...

What I mean is why would she deal with a minion when she knows who the real boss is. I reckon she has dumped NZoth to deal directly with whichever Void Lord is in charge and much of the story could be focused around the internal divisions of the Void forces.

[DeicideUH]

What new features would you guys want to see in an expansion like the one discussed in this thread?

- (Very likely) Improved customization options for all races (body type, scars/tattoos, new hairstyles, beards, jewelry)
- (Likely) Sub-races
- (Likely) Revamped Worgen/Goblin models
- (Likely) Level scaling applying to entire open world. Zones have minimum levels, but scale up to previous expansion's max (so, next expansion they'll all go up to 110). You can level up alts anywhere.
- (Somewhat likely) Expansion focused on races, just like Legion was focused on classes.
- (Unlikely) Revamped 1-20 zones (they need an update, and the new questing areas could work as pre-expansion patch content as they'd scale up to 110).

[derpkitteh]

What I mean is why would she deal with a minion when she knows who the real boss is. I reckon she has dumped NZoth to deal directly with whichever Void Lord is in charge and much of the story could be focused around the internal divisions of the Void forces.

isn't it the case that direct contact with a void lord = you're fucked?

[Nyel]

isn't it the case that direct contact with a void lord = you're fucked?

Do we know anything about Void Lords though? I mean we know they are super dangerous and super powerful but besides that? We don't have any details, have we?

[Azalar]

Do we know anything about Void Lords though? I mean we know they are super dangerous and super powerful but besides that? We don't have any details, have we?

What if Azshara is actually planning a Well of Eternity 2.0 with the Void Lords instead of the Legion? That'd be quite the plot twist. Or uh, maybe not.

I think the most solid ground we have to speculate on is underwater mounts. They're quite useless as of now. If that doesn't mean underwater zones...

[derpkitteh]

Do we know anything about Void Lords though? I mean we know they are super dangerous and super powerful but besides that? We don't have any details, have we?

nope, nothing really. though there's a book in the artifact trait quest that says this

"Igannok is one of the many marks of the Void Gods, and using it is said to beckon their attention to you. While most practitioners would prefer to avoid the gaze of these beings, their attention can be beneficial when a great amount of void magic needs to be called upon.

Therefore, it is wise to only use such marks when the benefits outweigh the potential pitfalls."

[Hitei]

- (Very likely) Improved customization options for all races (body type, scars/tattoos, new hairstyles, beards, jewelry)
- (Likely) Sub-races
- (Likely) Revamped Worgen/Goblin models
- (Likely) Level scaling applying to entire open world. Zones have minimum levels, but scale up to previous expansion's max (so, next expansion they'll all go up to 110). You can level up alts anywhere.
- (Somewhat likely) Expansion focused on races, just like Legion was focused on classes.
- (Unlikely) Revamped 1-20 zones (they need an update, and the new questing areas could work as pre-expansion patch content as they'd scale up to 110).

thats a good wishlist

I'm still annoyed that people want new hairstyles and skin colors over new races. Also scaling to 110 in old zones? So the defias I've been able to one-shot for 10+ years now are suddenly a threat? There's also some potential issues in terms of zone flow for zones that have continuing storylines, like Ashenvale into Stonetalon, and "level wherever you want" doesn't really work as well on Kalimdor and the EK as it does in someplace like the Broken Isles.

First, because people are just going to go the normal route anyway, because the easiest and most logical thing is to go from one zone to the attached zones, particularly if there are still level floors involved. But second because there are a lot more zones, but not all that many choices if we are level gating anything. If someone finishes their questing in Elwynn at 10, there options are... to move on to Westfall (they can already do this), Dark Shore (can already do this), Loch Modan (can already do this) or Bloodmyst (can already do this) OR go to Dun Morogh, Azuremyst, Teldrassil. You're just opening up the places earlier in the line. I'm not sure very many people would take advantage of this rather than just continuing the natural path.

I have to assume scaling isn't as simple as hitting a switch that just turns it on in a zone. Mobs have to be set and tested or they end up doing very weird and dangerous things, because they're all scaled (damage, and ability wise) to their own level. A mob that doesn't do much damage at all when it enrage at 5, because you two shot it, might be extremely dangerous at 55, because it takes you a lot longer to kill it... and I mean... it's kind of weird for someone whose 80+ to be hanging around helping out crossroads.

Not to mention the PvP nightmare in any contested zone if you have 70s and 90s leveling alongside 20s and 40s.

[TriHard]

I don't think the guys at blizzard are retarded enough to scale the whole world to 110 ( or 120)
I think the max scaling we'd see is 60 for classic content, 70 for tbc and so on.

But then again, the cultists outside AQ and the Devilsaurs in Un'goro are all scaled to max level so I am afraid they might actually
be that dumb, but let's hope not.

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What if Azshara is actually planning a Well of Eternity 2.0 with the Void Lords instead of the Legion? That'd be quite the plot twist. Or uh, maybe not.

I think the most solid ground we have to speculate on is underwater mounts. They're quite useless as of now. If that doesn't mean underwater zones...

Yeah, that and the countless of other evidence we've had lately.


It's going to be the south seas expansion for sure.

[Black Rider]

Of course we can say that devs promise no content drought every time, but don't forget it's first expansion under full Ion's control and things really changed now. Not only Legion patch structure is clear and predictable, but also from perspective we can tell that release day of every Legion patch was planned before. Honestly I think that they may know release date of new expansion already.

That gives me hope that we won't have to wait for expansion for a year.
Kudos to WoW Team.

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He will reveal 7.3 trailer. IMHO that's why he is excited

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He will reveal 7.3 trailer. IMHO that's why he is excited

[DeicideUH]

I'm still annoyed that people want new hairstyles and skin colors over new races.

And sub-races. Do not forget sub-races.
CUstomization offers way more potential for creating new characters or changing your than just two new races would do. Also, once they get done with the new customization and sub-races, the only options for further expansions would be new races and classes anyway. They should get done with it already.

Also scaling to 110 in old zones? So the defias I've been able to one-shot for 10+ years now are suddenly a threat?

No, because they won't scale to max level. Go back to Draenor and see how easy is to one-shot stuff. It would feel way better.
Only times the old world would feel somewhat threatening is during pre-expansion patches or while leveling.

There's also some potential issues in terms of zone flow for zones that have continuing storylines, like Ashenvale into Stonetalon, and "level wherever you want" doesn't really work as well on Kalimdor and the EK as it does in someplace like the Broken Isles.

Re-read what I wrote. I said you'd still have minimum level for zones, so you can't skip to anywhere in the world. The point is that level scaling fix some problems we have with leveling, mostly:

- You can outlevel (by far) a zone before you finish its storyline (scaling allows you to finish the zone while still profiting off it)
- You can outlevel your next zone in the storyline before you even go to it, forcing you to skip it (scaling allows you to go from one zone to the next or skip it if you so wish)
- Sometimes you end up in such a level that the only options are zones that you hate/find boring. Levels 50-70 in particular suffer from this. (Scaling allows you to keep leveling where you like and skip those zones).
- Current way of leveling force you to go to expansion areas in some order but never finish them (with scaling, they could make some past expansions now be concurrent paths. Imagine that both Outland and Northrend open up at level 60 [or even lower] and you can choose one of them and keep leveling there).

As I said above, you wouldn't feel threatened by a defias unless you are leveling a character or during a pre-expansion patch (because you are locked at previous max level). The rest of the time, you'd be still be breezing throught old content.

I have to assume scaling isn't as simple as hitting a switch that just turns it on in a zone. Mobs have to be set and tested or they end up doing very weird and dangerous things, because they're all scaled (damage, and ability wise) to their own level. A mob that doesn't do much damage at all when it enrage at 5, because you two shot it, might be extremely dangerous at 55, because it takes you a lot longer to kill it... and I mean... it's kind of weird for someone whose 80+ to be hanging around helping out crossroads.

They have been rescaling things ever since the squish hit, when they changed how both players and mobs scaled. Of course there's always a mistake here and there, but nothing that they can't correct during PTR or with hotfixes.

Not to mention the PvP nightmare in any contested zone if you have 70s and 90s leveling alongside 20s and 40s.

Ganking is already a problem. But, even with mob scaling, players would spread apart, and lower levels would stick to certain areas both because of minimum level for zones and because higher level players will be moving away from starting areas/spreading apart to different expansion content. Mob scaling also means that assaulting faction areas will be more dangerous for high level players.

And, don't people want more WPvP? Frequent ganking means low players calling help from higher players. Plus, scaling content means same faction players with varying levels can quest together.

[DelusionalBear]

For all we know about scaling tech they might have separate phases for each leveling bracket in each zone. With CRZ it doesn't really bring any issues like not having enough players, there will be always someone around. So even if they scale low level zone to 110, it won't hurt anyone.

[DeicideUH]

Was there ever expansion that didn't launched exactly 11-13 months after reveal? After 6 expansions we can tell, yeah, reveal date have something with release date.

Nothing forces them to launch exactly 11-13 months after reveal. If they have the resources to launch expansion August/18, why would they delay it just because they chose to make the reveal later? They can delay the reveal this time because, unlike WoD, we still have future content coming.

It's not coincidence, they want to create as much hype as possible.

Hype dies down after a few months of waiting. If they reveal closer to the release, enthusiasm is much stronger when the expansion hits.
If Alpha/beta is scheduled to be released at January, for instance, it's way more interesting for them to reveal expansion november, thus only 2 months before alpha, than August (5 months before alpha).

Having a shorter drought also means people having more faith in Blizzard's ability to deliver content in the future.