When do you think we're getting Shadowlands Alpha/Beta?

[ercarp]

Legion issued its first Alpha build 106 days after the expansion was announced. For Battle for Azeroth it was only 94 days. At the time of making this post, it has already been 108 days since Shadowlands was announced at BlizzCon—which would lead one to believe that the Alpha/Beta could not be more than a week or two away. Right?

Well, that's what I think at least. But what do you think?

[Dreen]

im hopeful for march 2-8, cause the week before that are holidays over here so when the datamining is happening i have something as a filler for when im back at work.
Also there should be a good amount of mythic kills on nzoth by march. while they obviously dont base release schedule on mythic kills, it'd be nice for them to have a good 500 players to give alpha/ closed beta keys to.

[LordVargK]

Based of the content they have shown at Blizzcon: later than week 19. Or the Beta will not include all zones from the start and is levelcapped. In recent years Beta was more of a demo version rather than a testing version of the game. It was used as preorder bonus and a way to advertise the game. There was little meaningful change made while testing. That's why I believe that we get a "finished" but late Beta. We did not even have alpha builds yet. But that's my pessimistic view of things.

Best case scenario would be that they stay true to their word for once, starting the beta early and develop classes and new systems based on tester feedback. Wonders can happen.

[ercarp]

Best case scenario would be that they stay true to their word for once, starting the beta early and develop classes and new systems based on tester feedback. Wonders can happen.

That's more or less what they did with Legion, and it turned out great in my opinion. The dev blogs on classes were an interesting time for Blizzard, it's not something they usually do.

[Craaazyyy]

That's more or less what they did with Legion, and it turned out great in my opinion. The dev blogs on classes were an interesting time for Blizzard, it's not something they usually do.

in Legion they never listened to any feedback what are you talking about? they made every class trash

[ercarp]

in Legion they never listened to any feedback what are you talking about? they made every class trash

You're allowed to have that opinion. I played every spec in Legion and enjoyed pretty much all of them except Affliction Warlock.

[LordVargK]

You're allowed to have that opinion. I played every spec in Legion and enjoyed pretty much all of them except Affliction Warlock.

I would also disagree with the fact that they listened to player feedback. They did provide insight into their developement process but that did not include reacting to player feedback. Else the issues with legendaries, which required a full rebalance mid-expansion and were never perfect up until the end, automatically incrementing artifact knowledge and classes feeling naked without Artifact abilities at the start would have been adressed before release and not only in later patches (if at all).

That being said: Legion's developement was better handled than BfA's and the results were much better. These watercooler talks with the devs are something really important I feel and they should do them again. They just should find a way to integrate their community in the process. Ubisoft has done this for their newer games like Anno 1800 and is currently doing the same with The Settlers. Other (smaller) Developers do this as well, Amplitude studios for example. Sure, Blizzard has a much larger audience, but I feel setting up a website to communicate and publish surveys, etc to get qualitative feedback (which Blizzard lacks) is not that much to ask and would have a bigger effect than more quantitative feedback generated through an increased number of beta testers, who mostly just play the game without writing reports, suggestions, etc. And even if the testers do there's no way for them to see, if their feedback was meaningful at all. So Blizzard does not really encourage giving qualitative feedback.

On the topics of specs in Legion: Be honest, did you really enjoy Demonology Warlock? If so, how?

[Niwes]

alpha around first week in march.
beta around mid/end of may.
in my opinion.

[Pury]

Warlock main here 0/ Legion affliction was awesome, Demonology was garbage. In BfA they went further with the new demonology fantasy they started in Legion, improved and polished it and now, BfA demonology feels great. It is one of the best feeling range specs in the game. Raw numbers could be better, but design itself is pretty good.

[Craaazyyy]

You're allowed to have that opinion. I played every spec in Legion and enjoyed pretty much all of them except Affliction Warlock.

imagine enjoying even more pruned classes lmao

[Monster Hunter]

Legion issued its first Alpha build 106 days after the expansion was announced. For Battle for Azeroth it was only 94 days. At the time of making this post, it has already been 108 days since Shadowlands was announced at BlizzCon—which would lead one to believe that the Alpha/Beta could not be more than a week or two away. Right?

Well, that's what I think at least. But what do you think?

Unrelated but. Where can I get a I miss wotlk sig banner?

[taishar68]

I don’t know but I hope I get an alpha invite again. I was quite stunned to get one for BfA, as I am quite the filthy casual

But my guess was around week 13-14, and I think we’ll see a release around the end of September.

[Dracullus]

Hopefully first week of March with build available for datamining this or next week.

[Valysar]

Soon™

Hopefully in February for the F&F Alpha.

[cuafpr]

i suspect they may hold off till after the last wing of LFR opens or is that the first week of march? idk?

[Dommie530]

You're allowed to have that opinion. I played every spec in Legion and enjoyed pretty much all of them except Affliction Warlock.

You liked the speccs in legion? Then you will love them in bfa to, artifact and legendaries added upon your already existing shit speccs and made them playable afther you have obtained these power upgrades, without them you were full shit mode, in short your base specc was hot garbage. And those are fucking facts lol

[ercarp]

Then you will love them in bfa

Nope, sorry, classes feel like garbage at the moment. Everything is slow and clunky. Players had higher base haste in Legion and there weren't any unfun GCD changes slowing the game down.

[Skildar]

I think you're not counting the right amount of days. You should probably aim at number of days before release date rather than number of days after announced.

- - - Updated - - -

Nope, sorry, classes feel like garbage at the moment. Everything is slow and clunky. Players had higher base haste in Legion and there weren't any unfun GCD changes slowing the game down.

For me it's not so much the haste but more the lack of action and decision a spec can offer. With some specs completely left in ruins (enh sham). Sure they still perform but they're not engaging and fun.

[schwarzkopf]

It is going to be released late November (based on the presale date), so May for beta seems reasonable.

You need to measure the beta from release date, not from announcement.

[Dommie530]

Nope, sorry, classes feel like garbage at the moment. Everything is slow and clunky. Players had higher base haste in Legion and there weren't any unfun GCD changes slowing the game down.

Fire mage fees good,
Fury warrior feels good
Protection warrior feels good
Warlock feels good
Frost mage feels good
Dh feels good
Guardian druid feels good
Monk feels good
Rogue is ok


Unsure about others, but prolly also all pretty okay to good.


Like wtf. Most classes feel ten times better now then in legion, atleast most things come from my base/core off my class rather then from a fucking bullshit power advancement lol