Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Tartys]

No? Legion was out in 30th of August, which is Q3 (1 July – 30 September)

Also, uh, I made zero comments about announcement. How'd you get the idea that I think announcing it on Blizzcon would push the release date further?

Sorry my bad, in mine language: Q means four months and T is for 3 months. From antique latin: quater that means 4.

but don't change what I mean... move the annuncement from Gamescon to Blizzcon dont means move the publication of the new expac as well: June or August are still probable.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Today's the day we get that 7.3 traileeeer! And hopefully a 7.3 release date.

[Deleted]

We have seen from other video game by Blizzard that Jaina is a dreadlord. Are we going to see more concerning that in World of Warcraft?

Jaina is not a dreadlord. Heroes of the Storm, much like Hearthstone in many ways, is not canon when it comes to the lore of World of Warcraft. We will hear more from Jaina in the future, but she is not a dreadlord.

FeelsBadMan

[Fahrad Wagner]

We have seen from other video game by Blizzard that Jaina is a dreadlord. Are we going to see more concerning that in World of Warcraft?

Jaina is not a dreadlord. Heroes of the Storm, much like Hearthstone in many ways, is not canon when it comes to the lore of World of Warcraft. We will hear more from Jaina in the future, but she is not a dreadlord.

FeelsBadMan

Haha, expectable, you can clearly see it was an HotS joke built on the meme!

[Deleted]

Today's the day we get that 7.3 traileeeer! And hopefully a 7.3 release date.

From the sound of these recent interviews (and based on what they did with 7.2), it doesn't sound like there is a traditional patch trailer this time either. It'll probably be a cut-scene of us heading to Argus and Velen returning home, or something along those lines. But it'll be cool nevertheless.

[Deleted]

Haha, expectable, you can clearly see it was an HotS joke built on the meme!

One was allowed to have hopes
Would have been a great plot twist though

[Soulwind]

One was allowed to have hopes
Would have been a great plot twist though

Nothing stops a dreadlord from disguising as Jaina (or anyone) at some point. But she hasn't been replaced by one since Cataclysm or whenever the meme says.

It'd be fun to have a questchain where you start doing slighly more evil things with each quest, only to discover that your character was kidnapped at the beginning and you've been playing a dreadlord disguised as them, fooling the NPCs.

[Tartys]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-wa...-of-legion?amp

PCGamesN also discussed the pacing of Legion. The enthusiasm for constant content without gaps hopefully hints at less of a content lull between Legion and the next expansion.

"Some big, some small, some not even patches," continues Hazzikostas. "Just a couple of weeks ago, when Argus suddenly appeared in the skies over the world, or Doomsayers filled the streets of Dalaran and a new quest became available. We like to be able to deliver content and advance the story through a variety of means and ideally not have any seeming gap or lull in that content flow."

To read between the lines a little here, that likely means we won't see the large gap between expansions as has been the case every time up until now. The hints and teases for what is assumed to be an Old God-based follow-up have already begun - we can probably assume things will get more purple and tentacley between now and 8.0.

[Deleted]

Nothing stops a dreadlord from disguising as Jaina (or anyone) at some point. But she hasn't been replaced by one since Cataclysm or whenever the meme says.

It'd be fun to have a questchain where you start doing slighly more evil things with each quest, only to discover that your character was kidnapped at the beginning and you've been playing a dreadlord disguised as them, fooling the NPCs.

If I worked for Blizz HR I'd hire you as a quest designer just for this purpose!

[enak101]

Ye that basically means no 7.4 of course but just some nice little in-game teasers and build up to the next xpac. I don't hate the idea the doomsayer stuff is a bit of fun especially when its little weekly updates.

[Grevmak]

With how careful blizz was in that Blizzplanet interview, my hope for a releasetrailer for a new expac has come to a halt.

If it happens: Cool! If not: Kind of called it.

We will see.

[Lahis]

To read between the lines a little here, that likely means we won't see the large gap between expansions as has been the case every time up until now. The hints and teases for what is assumed to be an Old God-based follow-up have already begun - we can probably assume things will get more purple and tentacley between now and 8.0.

They still need to develop the actual expansion. Games, even expansions, require years to make. Even if they could overlap some of teh 8.0 work with Legion patch cycle, they will still need months and months to actually finish the expansion.

Thinking that 8.0 could launch before 2019 is ridiculously over optimistic outlook.

[Marlamin]

I think 7.3.5 might have a bit more pre-expansion stuff which would usually be reserved for introductory expansion patches (in this case 8.x). Pretty excited to see the 7.3.5 PTR go live soon, seeing the 7.3 PTR is coming to an end soon. They have barely put any space between PTRs in Legion so I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in a matter of days after 7.3 goes live. If not, it'll be because they want to build up a bit of buffer time. Hopefully they'll accidentally push some post-expansion announcement 7.3.5 stuff before it's actually announced. [/parrotramble]

They still need to develop the actual expansion. Games, even expansions, require years to make. Even if they could overlap some of teh 8.0 work with Legion patch cycle, they will still need months and months to actually finish the expansion.
Thinking that 8.0 could launch before 2019 is ridiculously over optimistic outlook.

I'm sure most of the ground work on the expansion is already planned out and maybe even far in development at this point. They did increase the WoW team size significantly during WoD, and now is the time where we would see the effect of that. I'm quite certain 8.0 will launch in 2018.

[Nyalite]

Hopefully they'll accidentally push some post-expansion announcement 7.3.5 stuff before it's actually announced.

Like the kultiras items and iron horde/suramar before it?

Has there ever been a time when they made that "mistake" more than once per expansion?

[effs]

I think 7.3.5 might have a bit more pre-expansion stuff which would usually be reserved for introductory expansion patches (in this case 8.x). Pretty excited to see the 7.3.5 PTR go live soon, seeing the 7.3 PTR is coming to an end soon. They have barely put any space between PTRs in Legion so I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in a matter of days after 7.3 goes live. If not, it'll be because they want to build up a bit of buffer time. Hopefully they'll accidentally push some post-expansion announcement 7.3.5 stuff before it's actually announced. [/parrotramble]

It's usually a week IIRC between a patch going live and the next one pushed onto the PTR.

Most of the groundwork for thethe next expac is probably (what do I know? I don't work for blizzard ) done. Just needs all the features integrating, adding missing things, polish then balance.

[Shadochi]

They still need to develop the actual expansion. Games, even expansions, require years to make. Even if they could overlap some of teh 8.0 work with Legion patch cycle, they will still need months and months to actually finish the expansion.

Thinking that 8.0 could launch before 2019 is ridiculously over optimistic outlook.

And they said at the start of Legion (maybe even before the release at GS 2016?) that they are working at the next 2 expansions already. They have more than enough manpower to keep pushing out quests/scenarios while working full steam on the next expansion. Since probably adding 15-30 mins of quests per week for a month or two with no new assets is something they could do by putting a dozen (or maybe even less?) people on it.

[Grevmak]

I'm sure most of the ground work on the expansion is already planned out and maybe even far in development at this point. They did increase the WoW team size significantly during WoD, and now is the time where we would see the effect of that. I'm quite certain 8.0 will launch in 2018.

Same. I call it - autumn/fall of 2018. That's a reasonable timeframe. Most of 7.3 and 7.3.5 is done, it just needs polish, which can and probably is done by different people than those who made assets and programmed the bulk of content in the first place, so that those can move on. Blizz works on tons of stuff at the same time within their teams, they can definetly push out the next expac in 2018.

[Marlamin]

Same. I call it - autumn/fall of 2018. That's a reasonable timeframe. Most of 7.3 and 7.3.5 is done, it just needs polish, which can and probably is done by different people than those who made assets and programmed the bulk of content in the first place, so that those can move on. Blizz works on tons of stuff at the same time within their teams, they can definetly push out the next expac in 2018.

Yeah, the Legion content team is definitely going to assist the teams working on the expansion now which will further increase development speed. Also, I have reason to believe the Lightforged Draenei character model is actually 'backported' from 8.0 due to it also being introduced with some new tech that hasn't been used on any other character models yet except for Draenei. If so, this would imply that work on (new) character models is pretty far along, or that they prioritized Lightforged Draenei for 7.3.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard @ GamesCom Day 1 is now live: https://www.twitch.tv/blizzardatgamescom

[Azalar]

As of now, can we safely assume all the leaks that have popped up so far are fake?

I see a trend in all of them though.

I have reason to believe the Lightforged Draenei character model is actually 'backported' from 8.0 due to it also being introduced with some new tech that hasn't been used on any other character models yet except for Draenei.

What tech? How would you describe it?

[Marlamin]

Whew, I wouldn't mind some of the merchandise to be on sale for Virtual Ticket attendees. Some good stuff in there.