General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Puupi]

Admittedly its not that odd. Slightly lower than I would've thought, but not by much.

Quest blues in MoP were 404 ilvl, heroic DS gear was 410.

This time it appears the quest blues will be 550 and the SoO normal modes were 553 ilvl. So its a bit lower than last time, but not by much. Quest greens at 520 when many boosted 90s will have 483 ilvl would mean the mobs wouldn't take forever and a day to kill lhopefully.

Level 85 blues are 415, heroic ds gear was 410. So with that in mind WoD lvl 90 blues should be roughly 580. But it seems it isn't, so by wearing SoO heroic gear you will faceroll all the mobs up to 93-94 or so.

[Krazzorx]

My bad, I didn't know Jay Allen had said that, I never saw it anyway. I just remember what Chilton had said.

It was an odd conversation that was debated for many days after Blizzcon: was he referring to Spring/Summefror Winter? I could go get the YouTube video of it, but its really irrelevant at this point.

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Level 85 blues are 415, heroic ds gear was 410. So with that in mind WoD lvl 90 blues should be roughly 580. But it seems it isn't, so by wearing SoO heroic gear you will faceroll all the mobs up to 93-94 or so.

Well, judging by the average heroic raider, they'd actually enjoy that (going by my guild at least)

http://www.wowhead.com/item=80796 404 blue ilvl quest reward.

Heres a green quest reward http://www.wowhead.com/item=90322

[Puupi]

http://www.wowhead.com/item=80796 404 blue ilvl quest reward.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Pumppis/simple
my 86 warrior with 85 blues on.

[Krazzorx]

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Pumppis/simple
my 86 warrior with 85 blues on.

Those aren't quest items though. I'm comparing quest items to quest items. For all we know the crafted WoD gear is ilvl 570ish.

The quest greens actually compare almost directly to LFR gear. With DS LFR -> Mop quest greens and SoO LFR -> apparent WoD quest greens almost exactly the same ilvl difference.

[Deleted]

2/06/2014 | Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter Calendar 2013 Results Conference Call, Mike Morhaime is excited for WoD beta

2/07/2014 | Boubouille mentiones "the beta is definitely coming up soon as far as I know (Feb or March) and people should be on the watch"

If not only Boub but the president of Blizzard himself notified people on a potential beta release early feb, the WoW team prolly done fucked somethin' up during development early march. People outside the WoW team would never tease something two months ahead, if the beta is released in early april, that is.

Btw you forgot another Dev Watercooler.

[solgog]

I don't think we will necessarily have Tanaan at the beginning of beta. If I remember correctly, the last couple of betas haven't had the expansion intros live until later.

[Juvencus]

Rumor is we may not have a Blizzcon this year, but if we do it may be in August instead of Novemeber.

Just out of curiosity, have we ever had 2 Blizzcons before a WoW expansion before?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Just out of curiosity, have we ever had 2 Blizzcons before a WoW expansion before?

In my experience? No maybe before Wrath but I don't recall.

[Arbs]

Just out of curiosity, have we ever had 2 Blizzcons before a WoW expansion before?

During Wrath we had 2 I believe, I remember they talked about Shadowmourne at Blizzcon the same year Cata was announced.

Than we had the Blizzcon before Cataclysm came out.

[Puupi]

Just out of curiosity, have we ever had 2 Blizzcons before a WoW expansion before?

I don't think we will. There probably won't be Blizzcon this year. Even if it's Blizzards 20th anniversary and WoW's 10th anniversary. Only if they are revealing project Titan would a Blizzcon make sense.

[Krazzorx]

I don't think we will necessarily have Tanaan at the beginning of beta. If I remember correctly, the last couple of betas haven't had the expansion intros live until later.

The Tanaan thing isn't the pre launch event. Its the opening act of the xpac. Think of it like the start of Cata, where you looked in the vision of the Maelstrom. Except much larger. (45min-1hr of content according to Blizz) One could also compare it to the start of Uldum. How you started at the Neferset City and (essentially) fought your way back there over time. But again, larger)

[Hb]

god i hope for beta soon.. gief now.

[Krazzorx]

To try to clear up confusion (and this can be confirmed through various Blizz interviews, especially Afrasabi's most recent) here is what is CONFIRMED to be the order of events for WoD:

1. Pre launch event (could be anything from a small scenario to something larger) where we defend Azeroth from the Iron Horde.

2. Xpac launches and the first 45 minutes of questing is in Tanaan Jungle trying to disable the dark portal. This appears to be separate from the insta 90 tutorial.

3. We head, somehow, to SMV/Frostfire.

4. Unknown but judging by the finished maps, Horde heads to Gorgwhatever. (Only path available) While I hope the Alliance scum die (yes a joke, if it wasn't for my guild, I'd be Alliance) in SMV, they head to Talador (I think that's what Mamy said.

[Falrinn]

To try to clear up confusion (and this can be confirmed through various Blizz interviews, especially Afrasabi's most recent) here is what is CONFIRMED to be the order of events for WoD:

1. Pre launch event (could be anything from a small scenario to something larger) where we defend Azeroth from the Iron Horde.

2. Xpac launches and the first 45 minutes of questing is in Tanaan Jungle trying to disable the dark portal. This appears to be separate from the insta 90 tutorial.

3. We head, somehow, to SMV/Frostfire.

4. Unknown but judging by the finished maps, Horde heads to Gorgwhatever. (Only path available) While I hope the Alliance scum die (yes a joke, if it wasn't for my guild, I'd be Alliance) in SMV, they head to Talador (I think that's what Mamy said.

Shadowmoon Valley and Frostfire Ridge are the only faction-specific zones, and even then this will probably be only in the context of regular questing. While I could see the Shadowmoon story arc more logically flow into Talador (the same for Frostfire and Gorgrond), both zones will likely have a full compliment of both Horde and Alliance quests.

I would actually go as far as to predict that both factions will go to Talador after they finish in Frostfire/Shadowmoon, with the Horde getting a free flight over to their first hub in Talador, which in turn will link directly back to Frostfire Hold. Gorgrond will be a higher level area that may pick up a couple loose threads leftover from Frostfire, at least on the Horde side of things.

[Krazzorx]

Shadowmoon Valley and Frostfire Ridge are the only faction-specific zones, and even then this will probably be only in the context of regular questing. While I could see the Shadowmoon story arc more logically flow into Talador (the same for Frostfire and Gorgrond), both zones will likely have a full compliment of both Horde and Alliance quests.

I would actually go as far as to predict that both factions will go to Talador after they finish in Frostfire/Shadowmoon, with the Horde getting a free flight over to their first hub in Talador, which in turn will link directly back to Frostfire Hold. Gorgrond will be a higher level area that may pick up a couple loose threads leftover from Frostfire, at least on the Horde side of things.

While its possible Horde could go to Talador, I'd consider it unlikely as the completed (fully stylized standard WoW) map showed the only way to get out of Frostfire is to go to Gorgrond. (Map from one of the Korean/Chinese videos)

That's the only reason I'd consider it unlikely Horde goes to Talador.

Anyways, that's just speculation. The first 3 points are confirmable, and people seem to get confused a lot by the Tanaan intro zone. Most seem to think its the pre launch event. I don't blame them, but Blizzard statements back up the description I gave.

[Orlong]

And about the lack of content, yea, it's lame to go a while without anything new, but ya know what, you can unsub. No one is forcing anyone to continue paying for the game when there is nothing to do, so you can't really use that as an argument.

This is not to say I wouldn't want it to come out sooner, of course I would want it to.

But if we unsub, we lose contact with all of our friends and guildies. Then 6 months later, we come back and are basically forgotten about. Its just as much a social experience as it is a game and Blizz knows that will keep people subbed. If it wasnt for friendships and guilds, a LOT more people would unsub since there is such a long time with nothing new to do and they would suffer financially or get the shit out faster

[Deleted]

Celestalon is writing patch notes today..

[Orlong]

Celestalon is writing patch notes today..

Yet Watcher said they were done and ready to post about a month ago, the minute beta goes live so someone is lying again

[Falrinn]

While its possible Horde could go to Talador, I'd consider it unlikely as the completed (fully stylized standard WoW) map showed the only way to get out of Frostfire is to go to Gorgrond. (Map from one of the Korean/Chinese videos)

That's the only reason I'd consider it unlikely Horde goes to Talador.

Anyways, that's just speculation. The first 3 points are confirmable, and people seem to get confused a lot by the Tanaan intro zone. Most seem to think its the pre launch event. I don't blame them, but Blizzard statements back up the description I gave.

We've never actually had an expansion where players are always directed to adjacent zones as they leveled up. In BC you are directed from Nagrand to both Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm despite neither zone being ajacent to it. WotLK directed players from Howling Fjord to the Dragonblight, despite the zone in between. Cataclysm's leveling zones were physically located all over the place. And in MoP players were slipped past the Vale through an underground passage.

[Arbs]

Yet Watcher said they were done and ready to post about a month ago, the minute beta goes live so someone is lying again

They could be updated patch notes, things changes & need to be updated or rewritten sometimes. They could be PTR patch notes, he just says Patch notes.