Shadowlands Patch 9.1 Chains of Domination Releases on June 29 in NA (June 30 in EU)

Looks like the management pressure finally got to be too much and they were forced to put a date out.

Lets be realistic. The patch is not ready. There are still piles of unaddressed bugs as of the latest build. The last sets of raid testing, while improved, still had several outstanding issues. Class tuning is still in a bad way. There are literally new legendaries being added that still do not work - they actually do nothing. Most of the cutscenes still have placeholder animations.

They're going to release it, then spend the next two months desperately fixing the issues that will come with this pushed timeline.

Originally Posted by Dracullus

End of season warning comes two weeks before season end. Which would be this week.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/shadowl...29th-eu-322888

huh, must have missed that

Originally Posted by Advo

Looks like the management pressure finally got to be too much and they were forced to put a date out.

Lets be realistic. The patch is not ready. There are still piles of unaddressed bugs as of the latest build. The last sets of raid testing, while improved, still had several outstanding issues. Class tuning is still in a bad way. There are literally new legendaries being added that still do not work - they actually do nothing. Most of the cutscenes still have placeholder animations.

They're going to release it, then spend the next two months desperately fixing the issues that will come with this pushed timeline.

You do realize their internal build is more polished than PTR right?

Originally Posted by Talrath

Have to say that it's going to be buggy, but for the suits it won't happen. What I really don't understand is that why doesn't ion just say to the suits: the game isn't ready, I won't let it get published.

The problem is you are getting your information from YouTube. The PTR is not full of bugs and the patch is not being rushed. They are releasing it because they feel it is ready and not because of earning reports. The second quarter ends on June 30th so the impact of the patch won't be reported until Q3 reports.

Originally Posted by Jtbrig7390

You do realize their internal build is more polished than PTR right?

There is zero chance their internal build addresses the entire massive pile of issues currently in the public build. They'll probably have cutscenes done, and the worst offenders (things that dont work) handled. We're beta testing the rest of it live.

Originally Posted by Lobosan

"Mega dungeon" is meaningless. Another dungeon that gets folded into the mythic plus scramble. We saw how long the interest in the "megadungeon" of Mechagon lasted. Turns out these so-called mega dungeons are never really that mega after all. At best they're about the size of the old halls of origination from cataclysm. Large, but nothing to write home about.

As for the raid, it offers little of interest in the way of lore or unique mechanics judging from what we've seen thus far. More bland gray palettes, more recycled NPCs (oh look Nerzhul, NoStALgiA!!!), a continuation of the banal story line with Sylvanas "redeem me, I fucking dare you" Windrunner and Lich King Lite Anduin. Also nothing particularly thrilling in the notes that would compel people who have unsubbed to return. It feels like a place holder at best. Which is sad considering that the 9.0 raid was actually quite enjoyable.

The "set bonuses" are based on socketed shards and are NOT attached to tier gear, so that sucks. Just another excuse for the visual dev team not to invest in creating unique armor sets for each class, which for many people was the main purpose for rating. And of course, several classes in dire need of a retuning aren't even getting looked; but that should come as no surprise.

1. mega dungeon is not meaningless, cause its equal to 2 dungeons
2. it wont be in the mythic plus scramble till 9.2...
3. lol yes, the mechagon intrest lasted literally all the way till the end of the expac my dude.
4. "Halls of origination sized" halls of origination has 7 bosses... mechagon had 8, tazavesh has 8 aswell, seems you cant maths too good, especially since 4 of those bosses in halls of origination were side by side, and 3 of them were entirely optional... come on my dude.


"little in the way of lore or unique mechanics" sounds like you literally have not seen anything from the raid, but ok sure.
also it is attached to teir gear, its attached to shoulders, helms, chests, and legs.

Originally Posted by Jtbrig7390

You do realize their internal build is more polished than PTR right?

The problem is that their more recent behavior when it comes to the testing cycle doesn't give Blizz the benefit of the doubt anymore. I've been an avid alpha/beta/PTR tester for years for WoW, and the feedback/communication has gotten much worse over time. Furthermore, if a bug/issue has persisted for a while during the testing phase, it's becoming more likely that it will show up on live despite bug reports and feedback. Heck, there are bugs that were present during the Shadowlands beta that still haven't been fixed on live servers, as I even had some happen to me last night during a M+ dungeon. At one point in time, Blizz could make the argument that their extra time spent on releasing content was because they were polishing it up to make it great... but now such a stance is resting on their laurels. The content Blizz has been releasing just doesn't reflect what the company formerly upheld and demonstrated.

I've been playing WoW nonstop since vanilla and want to love the game, but instead of a cherished customer I feel like a statistic based upon how the WoW players have been treated and how development of the game has been approached as a whole. If you don't feel the company respects you as a customer and doesn't put out content that reflects this, it's just not worth the time and effort to play the game. For the first time since 2004, I'm actually considering unsubbing from WoW since I no longer feel like the company is treating the game and the players with the respect deserved of both.

Originally Posted by Mymight

Couldn't have said it better myself. This was my reasoning when I said the patch is not ready and things are in a very bad state, and looking really grim for the future.

What about the patch makes it not ready and in a very bad state? Your dislike for the game currently?

Originally Posted by rhorle

It is amazing that people honestly believed it wouldn't release until August or even later.

It will still be very unpolished, hopefully they do a free weekend to prove me wrong.

Originally Posted by Mymight

Couldn't have said it better myself. This was my reasoning when I said the patch is not ready and things are in a very bad state, and looking really grim for the future.

But of course, Dracullus or the Queen of Hamsters and other Blizzard towel holders will say we are talking bs and everything is fine.

I mean, if all you're saying is "it's not ready and it's very bad", while the complaints are as silly as "cutscenes still have placeholder animations", it's gonna be dismissed of course.

There's been plenty of betas and ptrs in the past that never have the full cutscenes implemented because they intentionally save those for after the content goes live. It's not like it's rocket science for them to swap in the new cutscene, I mean I remember how many times they've used the stupid Dragon Soul scene of Thrall shooting deathwing after Ultraxion to fill the cutscene hole on betas.

Originally Posted by FelPlague

WOOT finally, i hope its ready, and dear god i have 1 and a half weeks to get my last 3 dungeons and my last 150 rating in RBG's... yay?

I feel ya, I need that one dungeon but I'm stressed af now

Originally Posted by Lobosan

The fact that you are trying to split hairs between 7 vs 8 bosses proves that you are entirely disingenuous and have no interest in debating in good faith. Back under the bridge you go.

But isn't that the same as you are doing? Saying that a mega dungeon is silly when a dungeon in the past had a similar amount of bosses. Well duh. There is nothing new about mega dungeons but it is how Blizzard terms the longer dungeons in modern wow. It is the new term for large dungeon since most are designed 3 to 4 bosses. You split hairs and then bash someone for splitting hairs.

Okay, question for the pool of knowledge that is MMO-champ.

After the ungodly ammount of wait why does Blizzard still stagger the raid content over two months after the patch?

Originally Posted by Lobosan

The fact that you are trying to split hairs between 7 vs 8 bosses proves that you are entirely disingenuous and have no interest in debating in good faith. Back under the bridge you go.

Let's not pretend people didn't just ignore half the bosses when they got into HoO.
It was filled with a bunch of empty space that didn't amount to much in the end. I liked the dungeon, but nearly half of the dungeon was skipped every time. I can remember like, 2-3 times people actually did the other bosses at the end rather than just running right into the final one.

Originally Posted by Wangming

Okay, question for the pool of knowledge that is MMO-champ.

After the ungodly ammount of wait why does Blizzard still stagger the raid content over two months after the patch?

To keep players logged in longer. Blizzard's primary metrics for player engagement are how many are subscribed and how long they're in game for. The bigger both numbers are, the happier they are.

The sudden announcement makes me think this fucker got rushed out of the gates lol

Blizzard better be sure this version is indeed release worthy, they definitely can't afford to have this much of a content drought towards the very first patch AND have it be a mediocre one at it.

Originally Posted by Lobosan

The fact that you are trying to split hairs between 7 vs 8 bosses proves that you are entirely disingenuous and have no interest in debating in good faith. Back under the bridge you go.

and yet it is you splitting hairs by saying "there is nothing special about this dungeon, cause one dungeon 11 years ago had almost as many bosses, even though 3 of them were 100% optional"

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG ITS HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so scared me summer would be ruined! Flying here I come!

Originally Posted by Lobosan

I'm genuinely curious what you get out of defending Blizzard so rabidly. Do they pay you? Are you sleeping with someone on the team? Or is your personal identity so wrapped up in a video game with that any criticism of it feels like a criticism of you personally?

Whatever the reason, it is irrational and sad. Blizzard is one of the largest gaming companies in the world with more resources than some small countries. Yet their development cycle has come to a virtual standstill. They are based in Irvine, California where work-from-home technologies are ubiquitous and vaccinations have been available for 5 straight months. They're simply using the pandemic as an excuse.

The fact that you took pointing to facts of reality as "rabid defense" says more about you. I haven't had a good thing to say about the game since a month into SL, but I am a perpetual opponent of the stupid, childish and constantly incorrect statements burped on these forums ad nauseam.

I suppose that is a point of contention to that, aka your, crowd.

Everyone crying should just play tbc. Haven't had this much fun since wotlk. Questing blows away the Disney cut scenes of live and pvp is more than. Getting bursted use CD. Bursting use CDs. Every single ability has weight. Even if it's just mana. You can feel each item. Tons of fun effects and bonuses.

If you don't like either just get a life or move on. No need to be addicted.