9.0 General Discussion

[Edward Wu]

I mean... it is a proof. For Legion and BfA the deadline was set in Q3 with a reason. They released it a few weeks before that. The deadline for Shadowlands is in Q4 because they plan to release it in Q4. With the delayed Alpha / Beta there is absolutely no way they'll push this expansion out within the next 5-6 months.

Or they are simply giving themselves a larger deadline after seeing what a travesty Reforged turned out to be, even with a 2 month delay. This doesn't mean that the expansion is likely to come in Q4 at all.

[infinitemeridian]

I'd like a Necromancer, but I know people will get mad and say that we already have them (Death Knights)

Rather than a full-fledged class, they should just completely revamp UH to be more necromancy-er. The spec feels awful to play, just way too many abilities that feel like padding, so much damage spread across these buttons makes them feel un-impactful, ramp-up + dots + pet is just not fun, slow as hell, too many cd, etc.

Not to mention that it is the #1 spec in my opinion that could look 10x cooler than it does in terms of animations / spell effects, yet the only interesting thing they have is apocalypse. Everything else is just a generic melee swing with a purple tint.

[Siglius]

The deadline is proof of nothing other than Blizzard not shooting themselves in the foot by makinga promise they migth have to break.
The expansion could come out August, or it coudl come out late october. There is no way to know until we are some ways into Alpha.

Tbf afaik they have never released an expansion more than a month before their projected date. September/October/November release seems very plausible to me.

[huth]

And so it begins...

Dawn of the final week.
??? hours remain.

*sounds gong*

[keldarepewpew]

If you think this expac comes out in august you are delusional.

[infinitemeridian]

If you think this expac comes out in august you are delusional.

Maybe not August, but the people thinking it's not coming out in 2020 at all are also just as delusional (if not more so).

[Aeluron Lightsong]

We do this every year, but there's a 50% chance its in September.

[keldarepewpew]

Maybe not August, but the people thinking it's not coming out in 2020 at all are also just as delusional (if not more so).

I hope its 2021, but i dont believe in that my most optimistic vieuw is december. Anything earlier sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[Hyrja]

Got some information datamining will start this week, servers up week after

[Timewalker]

Shadowlands will come out the first week of December. Raiding will start first week for January. Don't kid yourself in thinking anything else. August is fucking laughable.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I hope its 2021, but i dont believe in that my most optimistic vieuw is december. Anything earlier sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Dude if Alpha started right now or even March if it went past 2020 it would be 10 months of development. That hasn't ever happened in the past several years like at all.

[Edward Wu]

Keep in mind that there is a lot of stiff competition in November from tons of AAA developers. And don't think just because the games are in different genres that there isn't a good amount of overlap. I really don't think Blizzard wants to release in November, or even October if they can help it.

[keldarepewpew]

Dude if Alpha started right now or even March if it went past 2020 it would be 10 months of development. That hasn't ever happened in the past several years like at all.

So you want to repeat bfa short cycle with no room to iterate. Gocha.

[Alga]

General doomsaying as normal. Blizzard doesnt even want to release patches in December, so why should they release a for the genre critical expansion? Releasing it in December would leave 1-2 weeks for fixing critical bugs, even November is a bitch for bugfixing. First there is Blizzcon, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and New Year.

Last weeks of September or early to mid October, to have some more flexible space for bugfixes.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

So you want to repeat bfa short cycle with no room to iterate. Gocha.

Right @_@ cause Azerite armor needed more iteration. Totally

[Queen of Hamsters]

If going by the release of the book, a September pre-patch sounds plausible, especially if they'll take the Legion feedback and let the pre-patch run for a longer time.

People need to remember 2 things: 1) The team working on the game is bigger than ever. 2) We have zero insight, internally they are always several builds ahead of what we see on the Alpha.

[Sondrelk]

Rather than a full-fledged class, they should just completely revamp UH to be more necromancy-er. The spec feels awful to play, just way too many abilities that feel like padding, so much damage spread across these buttons makes them feel un-impactful, ramp-up + dots + pet is just not fun, slow as hell, too many cd, etc.

Not to mention that it is the #1 spec in my opinion that could look 10x cooler than it does in terms of animations / spell effects, yet the only interesting thing they have is apocalypse. Everything else is just a generic melee swing with a purple tint.

They really should. The spec is even half ranged now anyways, and seeing as all plate gear comes with both strength and intellect it would be a waste to have only a single spec that needs that extra intellect.
It would also open up some interesting transmog opportunities now that DKs would need more robes, which paladins have loads of.

- - - Updated - - -

For release on the game i will staunchly stand by my early prediction of mid-october for release.
Any earlier seems a bit optimistic considering the time Blizzard has given themselves, and any later and we start getting logistical problem regarding critical bugfixes coinciding with holidays.
Releasing it before November also allows Blizzard to give info on 8.1 and early info on 8.2 without it being a problem for the launch of the game.

[Dioporco]

People need to remember 2 things: 1) The team working on the game is bigger than ever. 2) We have zero insight, internally they are always several builds ahead of what we see on the Alpha.

How can people be this naive everytime.

[Queen of Hamsters]

So you want to repeat bfa short cycle with no room to iterate. Gocha.

Expansions are in development long before we even know about them. BfA didn't have a short development cycle, it just had systems that weren't well received and ripping them out to reiterate would've cause a delay too big to fathom. So they released and set to work with the system for a patch change instead.

When we see a build on Alpha, they're already several builds ahead in-house.

- - - Updated - - -

How can people be this naive everytime.

It's a fact. They literally hired more developers, and not long ago released a photo of the entire team to boot.

You being ignorant about it =/= it's not a fact.

[Defend]

I just wanna explore the zones, drool at new models and spam reports on why I love/hate X feature and what my completely uneducated in game design and definitely under qualified a opinion will completely fix it all.