9.0 General Discussion

[Nagawithlegs]

What?
#tenchars

The ending to the Shadowlands lead-in plot takes place in 8.2.5. Outside of the Death Knight stuff there is no lead up to Shadowlands in 8.3.

[Hugnomo]

The ending to the Shadowlands lead-in plot takes place in 8.2.5. Outside of the Death Knight stuff there is no lead up to Shadowlands in 8.3.

Oh thanks, I didn't understand. Though personally, I think that's really ... not enough. There's so many loose ends. Calia's storyline was just left hanging for example.

[Nagawithlegs]

Oh thanks, I didn't understand. Though personally, I think that's really ... not enough. There's so many loose ends. Calia's storyline was just left hanging for example.

Calia storyline feels like it will be addressed in the next Azeroth expansion (10.0), which has inklings of a big world revamp. She herself would likely take over the Forsaken quests.

The Horde council is another big thing that likely will have no impact on Shadowlands. While the plot of Shadowlands is very important it looks like it's definitely a "vacation" from Azeroth likely while the devs redesign it.

[huth]

Oh thanks, I didn't understand. Though personally, I think that's really ... not enough. There's so many loose ends. Calia's storyline was just left hanging for example.

Because it isn't over yet, but the kind of things she'd be doing take time and there hasn't been remotely enough of that. They're also not going to be terribly interesting to watch.

[Asphyx22]

Tbh the way this expac ended felt so anticlimactic and rushed, it makes me very nervous for Shadowlands. A lot of these rumors about Activision severely interfering does not help either.

I do hope they bring the game back to at least Legion levels of quality. Legion was near perfect if they would have just toned down the insane rng of that expac.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Tbh the way this expac ended felt so anticlimactic and rushed, it makes me very nervous for Shadowlands. A lot of these rumors about Activision severely interfering does not help either.

I do hope they bring the game back to at least Legion levels of quality. Legion was near perfect if they would have just toned down the insane rng of that expac.

Azerite armor or at least those armor traits won't be there anymore, got that to look forward to(I didn't mind them......................until like around 8.2 then I was like "Nah fuck em."

[Monster Hunter]

Yeah same. Very, very disappointed. No closure in the cinematics, they were kind of pointless. No story progression or tie in to Shadowlands. No 8.3.5. How is this supposed to connect to the next expansion? It just feels like they abandoned the expansion to work on Shadowlands and just pushed some half baked finale.

Probly be an extensive pre patch I'd hope that ties all the shit together.

We know the pre patch will contain dealing with in some way the suddenly unshakled scourge forces. So I'm hoping its going to be a hefty chunk of content to do still on azeroth befor we hop skip over to neverland.

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Tbh the way this expac ended felt so anticlimactic and rushed, it makes me very nervous for Shadowlands. A lot of these rumors about Activision severely interfering does not help either.

I do hope they bring the game back to at least Legion levels of quality. Legion was near perfect if they would have just toned down the insane rng of that expac.

Eh there's no such thing as a perfect expac. But on he whole legions good out shon the bad which is all we can really hope for.

BfA flopped in the end because it was legion minus the things we liked from legion and we didn't like what replaced it. Islands, warfronts and Azerite armour wernt a good replacement for what artifacts, legondarys and tier sets gave our classes playstyle wise and warfronts and islands were too undertuned and didn't scale at all to keep people engaged for very long befor becoming really boring. The AI mobs was novel but ultimately rarely used and to easy to be anymore than an annoyance once u had the first raids gear.

The plot also could have been handled better. Same general direction and major plot points just a few tweeks could hae got us to this point without upsetting so many people.

[Nagawithlegs]

Tbh the way this expac ended felt so anticlimactic and rushed, it makes me very nervous for Shadowlands. A lot of these rumors about Activision severely interfering does not help either.

I do hope they bring the game back to at least Legion levels of quality. Legion was near perfect if they would have just toned down the insane rng of that expac.

Why does the expansion ending being rushed reflect badly upon Shadowlands? HFC was a dumpster filler and Legion was great.

The rushed ending shows that they realized BFA was a dead brand and needed more manpower to develop the next expansion. It's a fair point when critiquing 8.3 itself but not so much the next expansion, it actually makes me hopeful that they abandoned BFA while still trying to give it a somewhat decent sendoff instead of Nzoth dying in a quest or book.

[Asphyx22]

Why does the expansion ending being rushed reflect badly upon Shadowlands? HFC was a dumpster filler and Legion was great.

The rushed ending shows that they realized BFA was a dead brand and needed more manpower to develop the next expansion. It's a fair point when critiquing 8.3 itself but not so much the next expansion, it actually makes me hopeful that they abandoned BFA while still trying to give it a somewhat decent sendoff instead of Nzoth dying in a quest or book.

I guess you could say I consider it something of a bad omen. I don't think the rushed ending means the next expansion will be horrible, but it's a bad sign considering Blizzcon had very little to show for SL (less so than previous announcements) and the fact that they have had to layoff a ton of employees. I know their development team is technically bigger, but it seems like losing other teams impacted them greatly. Trust me, I would be completely fine with being wrong haha.

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Eh there's no such thing as a perfect expac. But on he whole legions good out shon the bad which is all we can really hope for.

BfA flopped in the end because it was legion minus the things we liked from legion and we didn't like what replaced it. Islands, warfronts and Azerite armour wernt a good replacement for what artifacts, legondarys and tier sets gave our classes playstyle wise and warfronts and islands were too undertuned and didn't scale at all to keep people engaged for very long befor becoming really boring. The AI mobs was novel but ultimately rarely used and to easy to be anymore than an annoyance once u had the first raids gear.

The plot also could have been handled better. Same general direction and major plot points just a few tweeks could hae got us to this point without upsetting so many people.

Yeah I pretty much agree. I just consider Legion to be the pinnacle of wow gameplay for me personally (fury war with the right legendaries was amazing). It was far from perfect due to rng issues. Wrath still holds the title of best story, though.

[eillas]

Any idea when the beta is?

[Chickat]

Well, Alpha will begin anytime between tomorrow and early March. Guessing mid-late February personally. Should be a monthish.

[Nathanyel]

I don't think we will see Alpha until all of the raid is up on LFR. So Mid March. Gives them 6-8 Months until release (I expect a release just the week before Blizzcon)

I know it's happened before, but are LFR wings opening really that much of a hype that they justify delaying a Friends&Family Alpha?

[Dracullus]

I think it's just about stretching it as thin as you can.

Hype around new raid is dead when last boss falls on Mythic.

If they are ready for early Alpha, they will at least put build for datamining shortly after that. But we don't know if they are ready.

[George Costanza]

Well, Alpha will begin anytime between tomorrow and early March. Guessing mid-late February personally. Should be a monthish.

I guess march sounds earliest going by blizzard, sadly

They need a VERY VERY VERY LOOOOOOONG alpha/Beta phase.

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I don't think we will see Alpha until all of the raid is up on LFR. So Mid March. Gives them 6-8 Months until release (I expect a release just the week before Blizzcon)

Yeah that seeems likely.

[Blayze]

Don't really get how they managed their resources for BfA cinematics.

Outsourced, most likely.

[Somewhatconcerned]

So SL is coming out later this year and not even a measly class preview or two yet?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

So SL is coming out later this year and not even a measly class preview or two yet?

Sometime in 2020 and we won't get previews like that until maybe Alpha.

[huth]

Sometime in 2020 and we won't get previews like that until maybe Alpha.

Given that no significant class changes were announced, i don't really see the point anyway.

[ExiHext]

Given that no significant class changes were announced, i don't really see the point anyway.

The thing is, they won't get around without some serious class changes. Surely not Legion-like changes, but I guess some sort of blogpost, perhaps even for every class, will be happening.

[Sondrelk]

I guess you could say I consider it something of a bad omen. I don't think the rushed ending means the next expansion will be horrible, but it's a bad sign considering Blizzcon had very little to show for SL (less so than previous announcements) and the fact that they have had to layoff a ton of employees. I know their development team is technically bigger, but it seems like losing other teams impacted them greatly. Trust me, I would be completely fine with being wrong haha.

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Yeah I pretty much agree. I just consider Legion to be the pinnacle of wow gameplay for me personally (fury war with the right legendaries was amazing). It was far from perfect due to rng issues. Wrath still holds the title of best story, though.

Going by past precedent, an expansion being bad leads to an even better expansion after, funnil enough usually quite equivalent to the quiality of the one before.

WotLK led to Cataclysm.
Cataclysm led to MoP.
MoP led to WoD.
WoD led to Legion.
Legion led to BfA.

Not ot mention, interestingly enough the expansions that do not go over well are usually the ones that experiment the most with new systems or ambitious projects.

Cataclysm had the world revamp.
WoD had the Garrison.
BfA has Islands and Warfronts.

Legion might be the only outlier since it had World quests and M+. Though even with that those were more improvements on Bonus areas/dailies and Challenge mode dungeons. As opposed to Warfronts having no PvE precedent, or Garrisons being almost infinitely more abitious than the MoP farm.