Zandalari - What class are you making first?

[Topornic]

Shaman. Used to main one since Vanilla till Cata. I guess I'm a masochist.

[Dracullus]

I mean I just wish that races came on launch day to play then. Like in TBC, or Cata or MoP.

Has nothing to do with "I want it now". They took something that wasn't broken and timegated it. There was absolutely nothing wrong with races being available for day 1 and it served them well.

Times change. You had 2 races on launch (sometimes not even that, in 5.0-6.0 period it was only 1 race), now you have 8 (or 10/12) races released through expansion (and about 50% could fit more as subrace, but still they have unique racial and require some work).

And it's not like Zandalari were ready to go in 8.0. Devs still needed to polish it (for example I don't think that Moonkin was even datamined before 8.1), make up some racial, questlines, mount and test all. Of course it's not the same as making race from scratch, but they didn't have any time to spare either - first they had to meet ridiculous launch date, then patch up all 8.0 screw ups, then work on 8.1 with brand new raid (unlike WoD/Legion second raid wasn't tested at all in Beta).

Zandalari Allied race has been announced at Blizzcon 2017, and Kul Tiras 4-5 months later. We are mid February 2019 and Blizzard hasn't even announced the release date of patch 8.1.5, which probably means it will only be released on April 2019, or on the final days of march. This means people are waiting for Zandalari for almost an entire expansion cycle!! (1.5 years). and they simply can't give a reasonable reason for this timegating, besides being a marketing milestone they set on their release schedule to milk their playerbase as much as possible.

Except they did. You may not agree with this reason of course.

[Eleccybubb]

Times change. You had 2 races on launch (sometimes not even that, in 5.0-6.0 period it was only 1 race), now you have 8 (or 10/12) races released through expansion (and about 50% could fit more as subrace, but still they have unique racial and require some work).

And it's not like Zandalari were ready to go in 8.0. Devs still needed to polish it (for example I don't think that Moonkin was even datamined before 8.1), make up some racial, questlines, mount and test all. Of course it's not the same as making race from scratch, but they didn't have any time to spare either - first they had to meet ridiculous launch date, then patch up all 8.0 screw ups, then work on 8.1 with brand new raid (unlike WoD/Legion second raid wasn't tested at all in Beta).

Sorry no. Times change is an absolute poor deflection and excuse to defend Blizzard with.

They could have released the 4 Legion ones on BFA launch day. Then just added them in over time to the character select screen as they were ready.

Again they took something that wasn't broken and chose to timegate it. And let's face it we all know it's to sell boosts and race changes.

[Morae]

Has to be druid due to unique models. Otherwise no way it would be druid. Sadly, since i'm intending to level both zandalari and kul'tiras humans, they both have unique druid models which means both of them have to be druid, which makes a bit boring thing to do to level two characters of same class in row...... or maybe I'll leave the other for later. At any rate, both will have to be druid for me.

[RangerDaz]

Times change. You had 2 races on launch (sometimes not even that, in 5.0-6.0 period it was only 1 race), now you have 8 (or 10/12) races released through expansion (and about 50% could fit more as subrace, but still they have unique racial and require some work).

And it's not like Zandalari were ready to go in 8.0. Devs still needed to polish it (for example I don't think that Moonkin was even datamined before 8.1), make up some racial, questlines, mount and test all. Of course it's not the same as making race from scratch, but they didn't have any time to spare either - first they had to meet ridiculous launch date, then patch up all 8.0 screw ups, then work on 8.1 with brand new raid (unlike WoD/Legion second raid wasn't tested at all in Beta).



Except they did. You may not agree with this reason of course.

They gave reasons, but all easily dismissable.
The real issue is that they didn't release them because they didn't want to. Because if they wanted to, they would have done it already.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry no. Times change is an absolute poor deflection and excuse to defend Blizzard with.

They could have released the 4 Legion ones on BFA launch day. Then just added them in over time to the character select screen as they were ready.

Again they took something that wasn't broken and chose to timegate it. And let's face it we all know it's to sell boosts and race changes.

I fully agree.
And they want to bring it close to the Azshara patch to bring players back to the game with both new race and Azshara... and money making in the middle of the year as well for the stock owners and bobby kotick.

[Calfredd]

priests do that

i mean they totally do that, priest of bwonsandi is like something natural

Aren't the Dazar'alor raid sets all bone-themed? So Shadow Priest would definitely fit if you keep the transmog.

[Dracullus]

Sorry no. Times change is an absolute poor deflection and excuse to defend Blizzard with.

They could have released the 4 Legion ones on BFA launch day. Then just added them in over time to the character select screen as they were ready.

Again they took something that wasn't broken and chose to timegate it. And let's face it we all know it's to sell boosts and race changes.

1. You kinda ignored second part of my post (that Zandalari wasn't "ready to go" - although close to finish - for 8.0). If they were, would have have all stuff - questline, dances, functional racial on day 1 of 8.1.5 PTR.

2. With race change I agree, but you can tell that about any new race (even more about "proper" races, it's kinda obvious that more people would switch to Naga than let's say Highmountain).

About boosts I disagree completely: price is set so high that it discourage people from using it (do you think that Blizz would make more money with 25$ or 60$ boost? answer honestly) and introduced Heritage armor to encourage people for playing without boost (not a trivial thing since many people like to collect transmog).

They gave reasons, but all easily dismissable.
The real issue is that they didn't release them because they didn't want to. Because if they wanted to, they would have done it already.

Let's repeat their reasoning:

1. They planned to release Zandalari and Dark Iron in 8.0. They didn't plan to release Kul Tiran at all, because it would take same resources as brand new race.

2. They planned new races for content patches. For 8.1.5 it would be Mag'har and I guess some unknown Alliance race (my speculation: probably Mechagnomes with Mechagon planned for 8.1 before they had to put out 8.0 bug wildfire).

3. During Alpha/Beta development they figured out it will suck to introduce Zandalari, but not Kul Tiran and they decided to add them anyway, even if would mean higher develepoment cost. But obviously it was too late for 8.0.

4. They decided to switch Zandalari with Mag'har, since it make more sense to pair them with Kul Tiran and Mag'har were relatively cheap to do.

It's their reasoning. It sucks for people that prefer Zandalari over Mag'har. It's great for people that prefer Mag'har over Zandalari. And now, could you point me exactly which part is dismissable?

[FuxieDK]

Has to be druid due to unique models. Otherwise no way it would be druid. Sadly, since i'm intending to level both zandalari and kul'tiras humans, they both have unique druid models which means both of them have to be druid, which makes a bit boring thing to do to level two characters of same class in row...... or maybe I'll leave the other for later. At any rate, both will have to be druid for me.

Druid models is the precise reason I have abandoned Zandalari all together..

I really really hate the horrible Moonkin form..

[derpkitteh]

priests do that

i mean they totally do that, priest of bwonsandi is like something natural

Zandalari Shadow Priest? He does have a hybrid death & shadow theme.

shadow priests use the void, and i'm pretty sure bwonsamdi is opposed to it.

bwonsamdi's embrace and the racial ability deal shadow damage due to gameplay mechanics, bwon is full on death magic and his priests would use it too.

but, sadly, priest is pretty much the most thematically similar. or rogue, but i already have a 120 troll rogue.

[Stockers]

Changing my paladin as soon as I can, then when I get time will start a druid purely for the different forms.

[RangerDaz]

shadow priests use the void, and i'm pretty sure bwonsamdi is opposed to it.

bwonsamdi's embrace and the racial ability deal shadow damage due to gameplay mechanics, bwon is full on death magic and his priests would use it too.

but, sadly, priest is pretty much the most thematically similar. or rogue, but i already have a 120 troll rogue.

Patch 8.1.5 PTR - Zandalari Troll Embrace of the Loa Shrines
The Zandalari Troll racial ability Embrace of the Loa now requires your Zandalari troll to use the ability in front of one of the Zandalari loa shrines around Dazar'alor. This grants you the buff of the loa and will remain until you replace it with another loa shrine. This activates a 5 day cooldown during which you cannot change the buff. You can talk to guards in Dazar'alor to get the specific shrine marked on the map.

Embrace of the Loa

Embrace of Bwonsamdi - (lower left shrine on map) Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal [...] Shadow damage and heal you for 100% of the damage done.


Shadow and Death do have things in common. I think shadow priests are great as his followers.

[Rozz]

Druid to replace my female troll Druid. I don't really care about the other classes, bc I already have most of those on other characters.

[derpkitteh]

Shadow and Death do have things in common. I think shadow priests are great as his followers.

like i said though, that's just gameplay mechanics. shadow and death are not the same forces.

[Piesor]

Still have my lvl110 boost. Will use it for a Zandalari Druid. I wanted to main a Kul Tiran Druid for BfA, however they come sooo late and look ugly as f... imo. There was so much potential in this .... but no skinny KT, the faces are all the same and ugly and I don't like the animations.

Will also create a lvl20 Zandalari Paladin and level it to unlock the heritage armor. However that's nothing I really want for my Druid since the armor does not really match a Druid in general and additionally you are running around as some kind of animal most of the time.

[RangerDaz]

Let's repeat their reasoning:

1. They planned to release Zandalari and Dark Iron in 8.0. They didn't plan to release Kul Tiran at all, because it would take same resources as brand new race.

2. They planned new races for content patches. For 8.1.5 it would be Mag'har and I guess some unknown Alliance race (my speculation: probably Mechagnomes with Mechagon planned for 8.1 before they had to put out 8.0 bug wildfire).

3. During Alpha/Beta development they figured out it will suck to introduce Zandalari, but not Kul Tiran and they decided to add them anyway, even if would mean higher develepoment cost. But obviously it was too late for 8.0.

4. They decided to switch Zandalari with Mag'har, since it make more sense to pair them with Kul Tiran and Mag'har were relatively cheap to do.

It's their reasoning. It sucks for people that prefer Zandalari over Mag'har. It's great for people that prefer Mag'har over Zandalari. And now, could you point me exactly which part is dismissable?

Mate, that's public relations answers from Blizzard. Of course they can say anything they want.

Us as costumers, we just need to listen to what they say, and compare to what they do.

I compared and for me it is just plain excuses. If they wanted to release Kul Tirans and Zandalari in patch 8.0, they could, because the lore perfectly fits for it and they filled Kul Tirans and Zandalari all over the two new continents (and Kul Tirans were announced as a playable race much earlier than the release of the expansion, like in early 2018).

The issue is that it was a marketing decision, not a problem of resources or lore or whatsoever.

If they made Void elves ready for prepurchase and maghar orcs ready for the release of the expansion, they could have easily done it as well to the zandalari and kul tirans. After all, 6 of the 8 announced allied races were presented to the public at blizzcon 2017 and the other two allied races were announced until 3 months later.

[Katchii]

Druid probably but that likely won't be the only one.

[gaymer77]

100% will race change my paladin...assuming I'm still playing the game by then & haven't quit all Blizzard games because of the direction they are taking Sylvanas and the Horde

[Dracullus]

Mate, that's public relations answers from Blizzard. Of course they can say anything they want.

Us as costumers, we just need to listen to what they say, and compare to what they do.

I compared and for me it is just plain excuses. If they wanted to release Kul Tirans and Zandalari in patch 8.0, they could, because the lore perfectly fits for it and they filled Kul Tirans and Zandalari all over the two new continents (and Kul Tirans were announced as a playable race much earlier than the release of the expansion, like in early 2018).

The issue is that it was a marketing decision, not a problem of resources or lore or whatsoever.

If they made Void elves ready for prepurchase and maghar orcs ready for the release of the expansion, they could have easily done it as well to the zandalari and kul tirans. After all, 6 of the 8 announced allied races were presented to the public at blizzcon 2017 and the other two allied races were announced until 3 months later.

I gave you opportunity to point out exactly where Ion's statement was dismissable. I'm dissapointed. Looks like you just dismiss ANY of their reasoning (kinda wonder why you wanted any reasoning in the first place). And somehow you think devs have unlimited resources for some reason and can shit out full expansion on command.

And what the hell it has to do with story? Unless you refer to "Zandalari fits better to be paired with Kul Tiran than Dark Iron", which was kinda obvious to me, since season1&2 of BfA take place on Zandalar&Kul Tiras and not Draenor&Kul Tiras or Blackrock&Zandalar.

Sorry, but it's kinda pointless discussion. Others will judge who has better arguments.

[Nathanyel]

The final unlock requirement opened in January aka the story. If the patch is due March that's at least 2 months.

I bet you would've also complained if the unlock requirement had involved content only being available in 8.1.5, even if it was grindable in a short time, like the 8.0 AR ones.

It doesn't matter that you technically have met the requirements already, the models and other assets still needed work - granted, mostly on the KT side.
They were planned or evolved to be released that way, Blizzard didn't say "release them early? Nah, let the fuckers wait even longer"

[anveena]

Probably another paladin if you need to level one for the armor.