9.0 General Discussion

[Revamp Man]

??? the dev literally said nothing is coming until next year after the anniversary event lolth

https://www.wowhead.com/news=296083/...-nyalotha-raid

if you think 8.3 is coming this year/9.0 is coming before November next year then you're actually delusional. there was a year gap between 7.3 and 8.0 - so seeing as 2020 is a guaranteed 8.3 release then we won't be getting Shadowlands until 2021 - simple logic.

- - - Updated - - -




yes, and that is subject to change. the fact that they didn't specify a month is telling that it could be 2021 and all signs point to that happening with 8.3 coming out around March next year. blizzard obviously didn't want players to panic, but if you follow the logic from previous expansions then Shadowlands isn't coming until 2021, which as i said, i'm fine with bc the xpac will be great

On or before December 31st 2020 is their deadline

They won't release during holidays because of lack of support and all that

They will release before BlizzCon

8.3 comes out in January not March

9.0 pre-patch will have about a month or so before actual launch which needs a month before BlizzCon


Late September 2020

[Sondrelk]

Late September 2020

Setting the release date as Q4 2020 instead of Q3 suggests they might intend to delay the expansion a bit more than usual though, i feel mid October might be more likely.

[matrix123mko]

It's funny how in each zone we'll find popular characters like Kael'thas, and in at least 2 of them their leaders have disappeared or something. Inb4 each of those npcs become the covenant's leader.

Also, in Ardenweald they can make Tyrande stay for ever.

[huth]

Difference is if she dies she's done.

If she doesn't die Blizz can BS a reason to bring her back later on.

She'd be just as stuck either way. There's no difference. Any reason to let undead Sylvanas out could also be applied to dead Sylvanas.

[Vynestra]

Setting the release date as Q4 2020 instead of Q3 suggests they might intend to delay the expansion a bit more than usual though, i feel mid October might be more likely.

I highly doubt they launch an xpac right before blizzcon when people will not play wow for potentially a week + and instead go to blizzcon lol.

If anything it'd after blizzcon in November, with the first raid tier starting right after thanksgiving, giving the race to world first enough time before the holidays hit.

I just can't see them launching in October w/ blizzcon that close. I could be wrong though.

If anything right after blizzcon launch would be possible, maybe the second week of November. Who knows.

[Revamp Man]

Setting the release date as Q4 2020 instead of Q3 suggests they might intend to delay the expansion a bit more than usual though, i feel mid October might be more likely.

Idk because keep in mind they are going to have to tailor it around BlizzCon

If it is not out before then....it will be a disappointing event

Imagine it launches mid October
Raids open at the end of the month
Mythic opens mid November
WF races interrupted by holidays
No MDI at BlizzCon
No arena at BlizzCon
Maybe 9.1 info but that is during the progression of the opening game

It has to be September so they experience the least hassle

Right now the systems are not finalized but the art team is probably pretty close to complete considering the fact that bastion had a cutscene

They will likely start alpha in February and beta in March or April and drip feed us the content with covenant progression being the end

[Makabreska]

Difference is if she dies she's done.

If she doesn't die Blizz can BS a reason to bring her back later on.

She will be in main focus second xpac in a row, and Blizz knows that. Fanboying over a character only takes you so far.

We got big, expired lore characters in Sahdowland's Shadowland, but I think (hope) they won't take a prominent role, and will be somehow in the background, showing their reactions to their past life and afterlife.

[Vynestra]

Yeah the fact they didn't announce tinkers was a highlight for me. I don't see any point in the class and it would not fit into the expansion at all.

Also people that are saying how its a small expansion or how WoW is transitioning into maintanance mode are really pissing me of. Its a known fact that WoW's team is bigger than it ever was and is going to grow by 20% in the future. You don't commit these kind of resources to a game you want to abandon in the near future.

Agreed. Seeing blizzard stick to their guns and not release a class just "because they've done it every other xpac" when it thematically makes zero sense is a huge win.

I was happy about no new class, i'm sure a lot of people feel that way.

Also the haters always say this shit, every xpac, no matter what. Just ignore them. WoW is a gigantic cash cow, maintenance mode would mean they'd lose A TON of $$. People are idiots.

[Revamp Man]

I highly doubt they launch an xpac right before blizzcon when people will not play wow for potentially a week + and instead go to blizzcon lol.

If anything it'd after blizzcon in November, with the first raid tier starting right after thanksgiving, giving the race to world first enough time before the holidays hit.

I just can't see them launching in October w/ blizzcon that close. I could be wrong though.

If anything right after blizzcon launch would be possible, maybe the second week of November. Who knows.

Launch will be nowhere near the holidays simply because they have to have support ready

This is the first expansion in a while that we don't get to choose our leveling route so expect a lot of issues

- - - Updated - - -

So q4 release

That means latest is September

[EbaumsTipster]

Difference is if she dies she's done.

If she doesn't die Blizz can BS a reason to bring her back later on.

Considering there is no way to permanently erase a soul in Warcraft (because they just go to the Shadowlands), then people better start crying.

[Northelim]

Shadowlands will most likely release in August of 2020 just like the previous expansions were. It had with last 2 expansions and going to continue. No clue why people are so delusional.

[Sondrelk]

Considering there is no way to permanently erase a soul in Warcraft (because they just go to the Shadowlands), then people better start crying.

Blue post clarifications seem to imply killing a soul in the Shadowlands breaks down the soul into base components that turn into new souls.

What is actually supposed to happen with souls in the Shadowlands is a problem though. I just hope that Blizzard manages to sidestep the problem they ran into with WoD, where they ended up overexplaining the concepts leading to a point where in the end very little made sense (Infinite Groms killing Finite Mannoroths)

[EbaumsTipster]

Blue post clarifications seem to imply killing a soul in the Shadowlands breaks down the soul into base components that turn into new souls.

What is actually supposed to happen with souls in the Shadowlands is a problem though. I just hope that Blizzard manages to sidestep the problem they ran into with WoD, where they ended up overexplaining the concepts leading to a point where in the end very little made sense (Infinite Groms killing Finite Mannoroths)

What people wish for Sylvanas is that she gets basically broken down into materials and snuffed out entirely: Jailer of the Maw is a better punishment for her (being chained to the top of super hell for all eternity) but people will see it as a Kerrigan type thing.

It's all so tiring.

[Sondrelk]

Shadowlands will most likely release in August of 2020 just like the previous expansions were. It had with last 2 expansions and going to continue. No clue why people are so delusional.

Pre-order dates are usually set at Q3, meaning they give themselves a deadline of September to release the expansion.
This time they set themselves the deadline of Q4, so until the end of December.

Now obviously they are not going ot release an expansion in December or late November as those are horrible times to release it given the staff being sent on Holidays and such, but the team might have planned to potentially withold the expansion until October.

Now, for the reasons outlined in the post above this would be a bad idea long term, as it guarantees the expansion would require a patch, or some other large and noticeable chunk of the expansion to be cut for the expansion cycle ot get back on track, which would just further cement Shadowlands as the WoD 2.0.


So in summary: Blizzard is probably planning to release Shadowlands a tiny bit later than usual, but still within reasonable parameters, but might have set their deadline for Q4 2020 in case they stumble upon problems that require more time to resolve and which the expansion cannot do without.

- - - Updated - - -

What people wish for Sylvanas is that she gets basically broken down into materials and snuffed out entirely: Jailer of the Maw is a better punishment for her (being chained to the top of super hell for all eternity) but people will see it as a Kerrigan type thing.

It's all so tiring.

Depends on what the Jailer actually does, and what it entails to be the Jailer.

Sylvanas seemingly wants power and to escape eternal damnation and torture.

Now if the Jailer is Bolvar then the Kerrigan explanation is apt, but if the jailer is himself actually tortured or generally suffering then Sylvanas being stuck there in hell forever doing thankless work while mostly powerless might be perfect punishment.
It wouldnt be perfect, but little is in this world, and if Sylvanas being the jailer and disappearing from the story forever means she technically gets let off easily then i will take it. Anything to remove her from the story.

[Revamp Man]

Pre-order dates are usually set at Q3, meaning they give themselves a deadline of September to release the expansion.
This time they set themselves the deadline of Q4, so until the end of December.

Now obviously they are not going ot release an expansion in December or late November as those are horrible times to release it given the staff being sent on Holidays and such, but the team might have planned to potentially withold the expansion until October.

Now, for the reasons outlined in the post above this would be a bad idea long term, as it guarantees the expansion would require a patch, or some other large and noticeable chunk of the expansion to be cut for the expansion cycle ot get back on track, which would just further cement Shadowlands as the WoD 2.0.


So in summary: Blizzard is probably planning to release Shadowlands a tiny bit later than usual, but still within reasonable parameters, but might have set their deadline for Q4 2020 in case they stumble upon problems that require more time to resolve and which the expansion cannot do without.

- - - Updated - - -



Depends on what the Jailer actually does, and what it entails to be the Jailer.

Sylvanas seemingly wants power and to escape eternal damnation and torture.

Now if the Jailer is Bolvar then the Kerrigan explanation is apt, but if the jailer is himself actually tortured or generally suffering then Sylvanas being stuck there in hell forever doing thankless work while mostly powerless might be perfect punishment.
It wouldnt be perfect, but little is in this world, and if Sylvanas being the jailer and disappearing from the story forever means she technically gets let off easily then i will take it. Anything to remove her from the story.

As far as I know the Q3 Q4 deadlines are for the fiscal year and not the calendar year unless I'm wrong

This place is Q4 of 20/20 ending in September


Okay I'm wrong it's calendar year but they have these release dates says more of a guideline than an actual release date and I think BFA had a similar one and I honestly cannot see them launching this after or anywhere near BlizzCon

[Dracullus]

Shadowlands will most likely release in August of 2020 just like the previous expansions were. It had with last 2 expansions and going to continue. No clue why people are so delusional.

BfA and Legion release in August and on pre-order page it had note "will be released before 21st September". Shadowlands has "will be released before 31st December". This note clearly indicate season when expac will launch - Legion/BfA was Summer, Shadowlands will be Fall.

And on top of that last big content patch won't even release this year. Launching expansion few months after would be just stupid.

[MrLachyG]

So given that Sylvanas is all but confirmed as a raid boss now.

How long do you think we have to wait until even the most diehard Sylvanas spologist accepts her as evil?
We even got confirmation that the Loyalists will not get anything unique from the next expansion, meaning that Sylvanas has even abondaoned those people.
Will we have to wait until Sylvanas is one the PTR as a raid boss for everyones eyes to open, or do you think we can get lucky and see it happening before then?

the most die hard Sylvanas apologists will never accept her as evil; that is why they are die hard Sylvanas apologists. I think she will be the penultimate raid boss before the Jailer. Maybe we beat her back in a dungeon before her raid appearance. I don't think they will go the Garrosh route and kill her as part of a final questline

[Nathanyel]

I like the idea of Race-specific Class skins. God forbid Tauren Paladins could use it.

Sunwalkers are indeed my main concern in that regard, at least some fiery spells effects instead of 'holy' golden stuff.
Other Paladin races could get doodads like the long-promised tomes and Transmog.

Hunters and Warriors are cases where you can easily introduce racial flavor with specific Transmog, esp. weapons. There have been several datamined weapons fitting to Heritage Armor.

Going back into the direction of full skins, they could be used to justify opening up classes to more races, e.g. Demon Hunter: Troll Shadow Hunters, Orc/Draenei Blade Masters

[Firefox72]

It has to be fall right? Almost everyone that got to test the game and/or was at Blizzcon interviewing the devs said that they think Shadowlands is still really early in development and that there is still so much stuff not even the developers are sure how its gonna work.

But there is so much variables with launching in October/November, especialy next year which makes me think they really really gonna try to release it in September at the latest or just push it back into December. COD is probably again gonna launch in October and we have both Next-gen consoles coming out in October/November. Not sure how wise it would be to release an expansion into the hype of next gen.

[Redzonetode]

Idk because keep in mind they are going to have to tailor it around BlizzCon

If it is not out before then....it will be a disappointing event

Imagine it launches mid October
Raids open at the end of the month
Mythic opens mid November
WF races interrupted by holidays
No MDI at BlizzCon
No arena at BlizzCon
Maybe 9.1 info but that is during the progression of the opening game

It has to be September so they experience the least hassle

Right now the systems are not finalized but the art team is probably pretty close to complete considering the fact that bastion had a cutscene

They will likely start alpha in February and beta in March or April and drip feed us the content with covenant progression being the end

It's going to suck if it comes out in September because the expansion is going to be unfinished. They said "more like December" - that's 3 more months they expect to need to finish this. They need to bite the bullet and release it when its finished instead of planning it around blizzcon. This years Blizzcon was amazing - they can afford a "just okay" regular Blizzcon.