BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[EbaumsTipster]

The leaker saying that Vulpera and Mechagnome release in 8.3, AND are the last pair of allied races is also a huge red flag when everything points to them releasing in 8.2.5 and also there being another pair for release in 8.3 or 8.3.5.



I really, really doubt they will just leave an empty space there at the end.

[Merryck]

I hope they revamp the character select and creation screen in the future. I remember seeing footage from the alpha - it had a cool character select screen where your characters stood upon a hill.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The leaker saying that Vulpera and Mechagnome release in 8.3, AND are the last pair of allied races is also a huge red flag when everything points to them releasing in 8.2.5 and also there being another pair for release in 8.3 or 8.3.5.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/301856568050319360/596883157320597520/unknown.png[/img]

I really, really doubt they will just leave an empty space there at the end.

Huh. Interesting. I'd buy it if Allied Races are just a compartmentalized feature like Garrisons and Artifacts.

We'll need to see where we're going in 8.3 to know what those races are, probably. Ny'alotha? Tirisfall? Thunder Bluff? Dragon Isles?

[EbaumsTipster]

Huh. Interesting. I'd buy it if Allied Races are just a compartmentalized feature like Garrisons and Artifacts.

We'll need to see where we're going in 8.3 to know what those races are, probably. Ny'alotha? Tirisfall? Thunder Bluff? Dragon Isles?

Lightforged Forsaken on Alliance vs Mok'nathal on Horde (skips Worgen rig, but reuses Kul Tiran rig)
or
Dragon People with the Worgen Rig vs Lightforged Forsaken on Horde

There's a good chance that the 8.3.5 races may have nothing to do with the 8.3 location, but if it's the second option the Dragon People might be from Dragon Isles. Mok'nathal would most likely be from Outland and there's setup already of Rexxar saying he's going to talk to people (and it wasn't Thrall).

I'm pretty obstinate that Horde will not get a Worgen AR because they're already getting a Goblin AR.

Watch Lightforged Forsaken not ACTUALLY be a race and Calia is the only one, which would screw up my theories really hard.

[Zandalariprelate]

I unironically think Blizz may be shitting on the Nelves in BFA to make them angry about the Alliance/Horde unification efforts, and in turn be understanding when Tyrande either fucks the efforts up in 8.3/9.0 or simply leaves the Alliance when they go through.

BFA is full of emotional manipulation so I don't think this is a stretch. It also makes sense that of all the Alliance races it would be the Night Elves who turn into the "kind of hate the rest of the faction" group, similar to the Forsaken's placement in the Horde.

Still people doesn't care as long they can play with friends. Blizzard only ruined the expansion with the lore fans, the gameplay was just the snowbal effect of prunning things

[EbaumsTipster]

Still people doesn't care as long they can play with friends. Blizzard only ruined the expansion with the lore fans, the gameplay was just the snowbal effect of prunning things

BFA feels like a messy nuking of old lore (lets get rid of Rastakhan and Azshara and N'zoth and Sylvanas and maybe Thrall too) to get a blank slate for 9.0.

[Zandalariprelate]

BFA feels like a messy nuking of old lore (lets get rid of Rastakhan and Azshara and N'zoth and Sylvanas and maybe Thrall too) to get a blank slate for 9.0.

But you have Jaina in there too taking a more active role, besides Rastakhan and N'zoth aren't really old characters unlike the sons of Lothar or Medivh that are kicking and living at the limit

[Dracullus]

The leaker saying that Vulpera and Mechagnome release in 8.3, AND are the last pair of allied races is also a huge red flag when everything points to them releasing in 8.2.5 and also there being another pair for release in 8.3 or 8.3.5.

It's alright to make fun of fake leaks, but let's not use "leaker said" as ground to speculation, Jesus.

In my opinion (and I said this since BfA launched) 8.X.5 patches are best time to release new races. Especially since they are not connected to season/new raid tier anymore. So I still think Mechagnomes/Vulpera(or Kelfin) will launch in 8.2.5 and some Worgen/Undead pair in 8.3.5. I doubt we will see any during 9.0, likely it will be focused on classes again (either with new one or we'll see class skins).

[Chickat]

I really like the new leak. Probably fake but I like it.

[Nathanyel]

I really like the new leak. Probably fake but I like it.

Yeah, finally a positive and 'believeable' (as in, I'd like this to come true) one again.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Is this the "Art Team Q&A" leak? Or did I miss one that actually sounds good?

[FlubberPuddy]

Is this the "Art Team Q&A" leak? Or did I miss one that actually sounds good?

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-at-4chan-kek

This one I'm assuming is the one people are talking about. And yes it's likeable (imo) but only because it's basically taking all forum speculation and saying "yup it's happening".

Also I don't think Mechagnomes/Vulpera will come 8.2.5. I feel like this will be for Goblin and Worgen remodel/heritage scenario and armor. I believe they'll package Vulpera along with Mechagnomes and another Allied Race pair as a 4-pack for 8.3.5 like they did for the Legion Allied Races.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-at-4chan-kek

This one I'm assuming is the one people are talking about. And yes it's likeable (imo) but only because it's basically taking all forum speculation and saying "yup it's happening".

Also I don't think Mechagnomes/Vulpera will come 8.2.5. I feel like this will be for Goblin and Worgen remodel/heritage scenario and armor. I believe they'll package Vulpera along with Mechagnomes and another Allied Race pair as a 4-pack for 8.3.5 like they did for the Legion Allied Races.

It's got a LOOOOT wrong. Likeable is one thing, Believable is another entirely.

[benting]

Just waiting for an "Elune is evil" reveal so the Nelf fanbase can just quit.

Shes the boss of 8.3

/s

[rda]

Some notes, it's been a long time, sorry for a big post.

8.2 is kind of meh

Nazjatar is pretty terrible. Zone layout is annoying and calls for flying, but you don't have it yet, many quests were too cryptic and too tedious, tons of bugs everywhere. They are fixing some of this but as usual they just had to wait until live (why on earth did they not fix things in the beta?? I checked and most of the problems that they are fixing on live were reported on the beta as well, multiple times). Bodyguards are meh. The mix of dailies and world quests feels weird and pointless, I don't know what the big idea was. Dailies that you don't see until you are close to them are annoying, please don't do this anymore. If the Nazjatar rep was not one of the reqs for flying, I wouldn't have been doing Nazjatar past day 1 or 2, maybe just for emissary.

Mechagon is somewhat better, but not terribly so. The terrain is easy to navigate and that's a big pro. I like collecting designs / building stuff. The size of the zone is, however, a little disappointing - it is too small. I am not sure I will go to Mechagon often after I get to revered, I haven't yet - after a month or so I will perhaps go to Mechagon about as often as I go to Timeless Isle (which is not very often). Still, better than Nazjatar by a mile.

Pet battles in both new zones are pretty uninteresting for a seasoned pet battler. I haven't been to the new pet battle dungeon yet (and haven't read anything about it because I don't want to spoil the fights), I guess the fights there should be better. Pet battles overall stagnate, they need to add more depth - at least a couple of new families, or maybe some new ability mechanics, similarly to how they add new mechanics with each new patch of HS.

Essences are meh. Essences certainly aren't fixing anything in terms of spec gameplay. I am just pressing a button every time it goes off the CD, woohoo. I don't like being pressured to turn on the war mode on Nazjatar / Mechagon, or do PVP for essences. Thankfully, I can ignore all of that, because I am fine with being a day or two late with flying and having third-best essences (I don't like them anyway).

New islands I didn't do but I figured they are same old just with the new scenery. Not going to do heroic warfronts either, not interested. New additions to professions are, well, there, hardly something to be excited about. Not sure how I feel about not being at max skill for professions again - OK, I suppose, whatever, will get to max again eventually.

Sum total, I respect 8.2 for the ton of little things it adds, and maybe that's the best they could do mid-expansion, but it doesn't make BFA interesting. If it wasn't for flying, I would have mostly ignored 8.2 content, flying is the only carrot that kind of makes it kind of maybe work for some time - for me. I am not sure what they can do for 8.3 - that's still mid-expansion, so making non-cosmetic changes is again out, and flying is already spent as a carrot.

The leaks / 9

The last leak seems fake. The guy / girl talks too much, tries to argue a lot. The points are all shallow. The talks are all on the surface, they are all generalities and / or "trust me". It's fake.

It seems however, I am going to spend the opening word on the next Blizzcon praying for no level squish and no revamp of the old zones (I see both as humongous excuses to waste time to achieve pretty much nothing and just avoid having to face the real issues with gameplay - which are: made-bad specs, consistently bad PVP, stagnating systems).

Not buying the new 6 months mount. I already have hundreds and my collectioner instincts have been adjusted by now to ignore paid-for mounts completely, because they have been adding too many of them. If they were adding 1 mount per year or so, it'd have been different, but we seem to be heading to 1 mount every 2-3 months and that's way too often.

That seems to be it.

[Nyel]

Sounds like Blizzard are getting better at protecting themselves from data-mining. Is that what you're saying?

Honestly, as much as I appreciate the work of dataminers like Marlamin, this is a good thing.

- - - Updated - - -

The leaker saying that Vulpera and Mechagnome release in 8.3, AND are the last pair of allied races is also a huge red flag when everything points to them releasing in 8.2.5 and also there being another pair for release in 8.3 or 8.3.5.



I really, really doubt they will just leave an empty space there at the end.

"Everything points to them releasing in 8.2.5..." uhm, what exactly?

Blizzard needs some kind of pre-purchase allied races and Mechagnomes/Vulpera do the trick when they're coming with a Tinker early access (this would sell the allied races that are universally disliked on both sides, at least more than other allied races they've released).

This makes much more sense and is way more likely to happen then 4 more allied races during the 8.x cycle.

[huth]

I really, really doubt they will just leave an empty space there at the end.

I don't. They didn't change the spacing from the regular races, which is probably easier to do than the alternative, so the emtpy space might just be happenstance.
From my understanding, Allied Races are not meant to be BfA exclusive, so having some extra space would make sense for the future.

[FlubberPuddy]

I don't. They didn't change the spacing from the regular races, which is probably easier to do than the alternative, so the emtpy space might just be happenstance.
From my understanding, Allied Races are not meant to be BfA exclusive, so having some extra space would make sense for the future.

All of the Allied Races released so far has had some form of link to an already existing playable race, whether that's through a race classification "troll/orc/human" etc or model classification (this is more for incoming vulpera sharing goblin rig, but can apply to Zandalari with Night Elf rig before more changes).

It would be extremely short-sighted to not expect fans of the other 4 remaining playable races to "not get their own" Allied Race variant. Even if this isn't some set rule, it's pretty much expected within the playerbase by now.

For instance we already see gnome fans telling others to "stfu it's our turn" basically with the incoming mechagnomes, despite the obvious fact that gnomes aren't a popular player choice. It's more about people "getting their share" and Blizzard would be stupid to not see that being case for the last remaining Allied Races to come for BFA.

You leave out a pair and end it with Vulpera and Mechagnome and you can bet a vast amount of players will kick up a storm.

[huth]

All of the Allied Races released so far has had some form of link to an already existing playable race, whether that's through a race classification "troll/orc/human" etc or model classification (this is more for incoming vulpera sharing goblin rig, but can apply to Zandalari with Night Elf rig before more changes).

The question is whether this was intentional on Blizzard's side. I don't really buy the whole "one allied for each base race" hypothesis.

[FlubberPuddy]

The question is whether this was intentional on Blizzard's side. I don't really buy the whole "one allied for each base race" hypothesis.

And what I'm trying to say is that question doesn't matter. At this point it's player expectation. It's pretty much what's assumed by majority of players and that's the perception Blizzard has given, whether unknowingly or knowingly.

Though I'd wager they're not dumb enough to not realize they've done that.