BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[Nyel]

I mean it's not like Helya could "help" Bolvar getting out of his demise, is it? Anything can happen and this isn't as far fetched as other stuff we've gotten. I hated the Shadowlands leak but I really dig the "new" Shadowlands 2.0 and 8.3 leak. Don't know why, just makes Shadowlands overall better for me. I totally can see this being the next expansion yet it would be surprised by such an accurate leak 4 months before Blizzcon.

[MrExcelion]

Yeah I feel sorry for anyone who believes in designer/artist/whatever leaks. Historically every single expansion leak has always been someone who got to see the slideshow presentation for Blizzard early (hence why you get things like "Voljin in an urn"). Information is always dictated from memory, not an in-depth perfectly recalled list of every system, zone, plot beat, etc. as if it was all sitting right in front of them and easy to reference. They will always conveniently use that they only work in one part as a reason they don't know EVERYTHING cus they only work as an artist/quest designer/marketing guy, yet they'll suspiciously know a great great deal about alot of stuff in great detail, including the rationale behind why the decisions were made for things well out of their supposed department.

Also the fact that the logo and title are some of the last things finalized in the lead up to reveal....

I emphasize the logo and title timeframes over and over but it seems lost on the general crowd here. Should just be a megathread for leaks. Codenames (or no names at all) exist for a reason.

[TaliaKirana]

It's possible there is a lot of story stuff in 8.2.5, but Blizz is withholding it from the PTR. We've seen them hide quests from the PTR before.

[Drekmar]

It's possible there is a lot of story stuff in 8.2.5, but Blizz is withholding it from the PTR. We've seen them hide quests from the PTR before.

They might even encrypt all the story related stuff from now on, now that they've got that polished.

[Wilfire]

They might even encrypt all the story related stuff from now on, now that they've got that polished.

They'll encrypt it so hard that we'll go through the rest of BfA without getting any story updates at this rate.

[Raetary]

They might even encrypt all the story related stuff from now on, now that they've got that polished.

Imo they shouldn't encrypt that much.

I'm starving for updates.

[Drekmar]

They'll encrypt it so hard that we'll go through the rest of BfA without getting any story updates at this rate.

You will get the story update when you actually play it.

[Makorus]

Honestly, what even is the point of the 8.2.5 PTR?

How many people actually test Party Sync? You can't even test it intuitively. It doesnt even hype us up or anything.

[Sondrelk]

Honestly, what even is the point of the 8.2.5 PTR?

How many people actually test Party Sync? You can't even test it intuitively. It doesnt even hype us up or anything.

Same as every other PTR. Testing for the Alliance bee mount questline and associated rep, Firelands timewalking, questlines and errors that come with them and graphical or other issues arising from the model and animation updates to Goblins and Worgen.

[Nathanyel]

Speaking of the Bee mount, is that still flagged as Alliance only, or is it now available to both sides?

[Sondrelk]

Speaking of the Bee mount, is that still flagged as Alliance only, or is it now available to both sides?

Given that is was Alliance only before, and there has been no news that i know of to the contrary, i am going to assume it still is.

It will likely become a case of the Horde being able to use it after an Alliance alt gets it, but i could be pleasantly surprised if the Alliance actually got something to hang over the Horde for once, given the large amount of variety in mounts on Horde side this expansion, and the 2 mounts that can only be gained if you play Horde.

[Dracullus]

Given that is was Alliance only before, and there has been no news that i know of to the contrary, i am going to assume it still is.

It will likely become a case of the Horde being able to use it after an Alliance alt gets it, but i could be pleasantly surprised if the Alliance actually got something to hang over the Horde for once, given the large amount of variety in mounts on Horde side this expansion, and the 2 mounts that can only be gained if you play Horde.

Horde exclusive mounts are nothing special to be honest. Alliance so far in BfA got exclusive hippo and now exclusive bee. So it's not like they were in worse situation, they are just louder.

Similar with mythic raids, every time I hear screaming that it's Horde dominated because of racials. Meanwhile during BoD raid H/A split didn't matter at all and result was exactly the same.

[huth]

Given that is was Alliance only before, and there has been no news that i know of to the contrary, i am going to assume it still is.

It will likely become a case of the Horde being able to use it after an Alliance alt gets it, but i could be pleasantly surprised if the Alliance actually got something to hang over the Horde for once, given the large amount of variety in mounts on Horde side this expansion, and the 2 mounts that can only be gained if you play Horde.

It's Alliance flagged in the journal.

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Similar with mythic raids, every time I hear screaming that it's Horde dominated because of racials. Meanwhile during BoD raid H/A split didn't matter at all and result was exactly the same.

Alliance takes several weeks to months after the Horde to get to the 100 raids cleared. The split matters quite a bit.

[Dracullus]

Alliance takes several weeks to months after the Horde to get to the 100 raids cleared. The split matters quite a bit.

I meant that I heard so many times that Alliance is so behind because they have weaker racials. In BoD racials didn't matter, because every faction had the same on last 6 bosses.

Truth is that best players just want play in single community. They picked Horde for several reasons over 10 years ago and nothing outside merging factions for PVE content would change that.

[Sondrelk]

Horde exclusive mounts are nothing special to be honest. Alliance so far in BfA got exclusive hippo and now exclusive bee. So it's not like they were in worse situation, they are just louder.

Similar with mythic raids, every time I hear screaming that it's Horde dominated because of racials. Meanwhile during BoD raid H/A split didn't matter at all and result was exactly the same.

Alliance got 3 horses, 2 of which were recolors, Horde got 3 completely different mounts, 2 of which were new models. In addition to that, Horde got the 2 extra mounts. True, Alliance could get recolors of 2 of the mounts Horde could get, and be able to use the Horde mounts if they got them on a Horde alt, the fact still stands that as a casual mount collector, Horde got more variety and quantity of mounts than Alliance did. Could also mention how Horde got 3 new flying mounts, 1 of which was a spectral mount, the model itself being one introduced this expansion. Alliance got 3 recolors of a mount from MoP.

Alliance getting a single unique mount that they can have is a nice gesture that allows Alliance to finally have something substantial to hold over the Horde for once. Now all we need is a mirror to the Saurfang quest and we are close to parity.

[justandulas]

They really shouldn't, killing off random characters randomly doesn't really make it interesting, just annoyed. Vol'Jin got killed off in Legion and well..... it was a waste.

Where they dropped the ball isn’t offing everyone for shock value to end it; it was not having the horde kill jaina to end bod

That plot armor

[Sondrelk]

I meant that I heard so many times that Alliance is so behind because they have weaker racials. In BoD racials didn't matter, because every faction had the same on last 6 bosses.

Truth is that best players just want play in single community. They picked Horde for several reasons over 10 years ago and nothing outside merging factions for PVE content would change that.

Alliance racials are not substantially worse than Horde at the moment honestly, maybe a tiny bit on a boss-to-boss basis. The problem came more from Horde having way more powerful racials until halfway through MoP, when Throne of Thudner had 3 Beast type bosses, and Trolls had an utility racial that gave them 10% more damage to Beasts. (This racial was later retooled to giving 10% extra exdperience from beasts instead)

Snowball effect happened after that, raiders who want to get serious about high-end raiding eventually gravitate towards where the best players and guilds are, and because of the aftereffects of the old inbalance, those groups are on Horde.

Only way to fix this imbalance at this moment would be to incentivise raiding on Alliance, which risk the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction.

[huth]

Only way to fix this imbalance at this moment would be to incentivise raiding on Alliance, which risk the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction.

Only way to fix it is to allow cross faction raiding. Anything short of that would just swing the pendulum to one of the factions. The problem is inherent to the split, even if both factions were completely even in gameplay, people would gravitate to the one with the bigger raiding community.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I hope we get a new patch this week. This is by far one of the most disappointing datamining sessions in a while. We want moooooore!

[FlubberPuddy]

I hope we get a new patch this week. This is by far one of the most disappointing datamining sessions in a while. We want moooooore!

Monday is a holiday for those of us in the US (Labor Day Weekend). So don't expect any crazy update tomorrow

But yeah, they've finally hidden their upcoming content (well, the story anyway) so now the wait between patches feels even longer than it actually is :/

- - - Updated - - -

Where they dropped the ball isn’t offing everyone for shock value to end it; it was not having the horde kill jaina to end bod

That plot armor

I'm not a Jaina fanboy, but your shock value comment is ironic considering you wanted Jaina dead at the end of BoD (seemingly just cuz). Do you think her story is over?

Rastakhan - a lot of people knew from the beginning Talanji was being set-up to take his role and so his death wasn't a surprise (nor unnecessary).