9.0 General Discussion

[Maxilian]

Honestly the breadcrumbs of the shadowlands natives being allied races backs up my theory that this expansion will end with Sylvanas successfully destroying the Shadowlands. "Setting us all free" from the Arbiter's design & leaving those new races as refuges on Azeroth

I have assumed the same, and it would be an interesting end, and that's the only way i see for the Shadowlands covenants to join a faction.

Also... @EbaumsTipster does Vampire look... but they are way too Nosferatu for my taste (AKA Ugly vampire styles)

[Relapses]

Not saying it's even remotely likely, but they also didn't add races with patches until 7.3.5. There also wasn't an odd cycle expansion without a class until this one. What has or hasn't been done before doesn't really indicate what might happen in the future.

I don't think 9.3 is likely. But I could see it being added at the conclusion with the prepatch, or in a resolution 9.3.5

True, but Allied Races made sense with the story of BfA. I suppose if 10.0's story heavily features something that can be molded into a class we could see it happen in a final patch. That's a pretty big IF though. I wouldn't bank on it.

[Fahrad Wagner]

As a huge HUGE fan of Netflix's Castlevania, I approve of this.
Had completely forgotten about the launch raid theme, guessing I was too focused on leveling changes and Covenants...

I was thinking the same! I am in love with Castle Nathria and it's giving me massive Castlevania vibes. It's gonna be awesome!

[Atticon]

Seeing the Maw Raid sets, are we back to purely armor tints for differentiation between difficulties? I'd love if that were the case so I don't always end up with some discount looking version of Mythic, which I can only get two years later in the next expac.

[Sondrelk]

Seeing the Maw Raid sets, are we back to purely armor tints for differentiation between difficulties? I'd love if that were the case so I don't always end up with some discount looking version of Mythic, which I can only get two years later in the next expac.

It still depends on whether the Maw Raid is from an actual raid, or if it is from something else and is just named that for filing purposes.

[Sondrelk]

Oh the RNG was horrid. But the fact that they were so desirable and that you could acquire them from so many things definitely drove people to do content.

A few were desriable, many of them were awful. Organically leading players to farm old content was nice when you got the mount from Gul'dan on a weekly farm, not so great when you were farming the horrible initial version of M+ for weeks on end.

[Castia]

The maw plate set is genuinely tempting me to play a plate class. It’s that good.

Amazing job by Blizzard.

[Ilir]

Seeing the Maw Raid sets, are we back to purely armor tints for differentiation between difficulties? I'd love if that were the case so I don't always end up with some discount looking version of Mythic, which I can only get two years later in the next expac.

I hope mythic/elite pvp keeps its exclusive looking set.

[Obelisk Kai]

So 9.1 is going to be a Maw raid (You can imagine the trailer now can't you, Patch 9.1...Jailbreak!). I figure this makes sense as it fits the pattern Blizzard have followed since Legion.

First tier is a smaller raid that is heavily related to one of the major plotlines in an expansion but not THE major plotline of an expansion, usually built up in one of the zones.

Uldir in Nazmir and the Emerald Nightmare in Val'Sharah fit the bill for this pattern, and Castle Nathria (probably the culmination of the Revendreth story) does the same.

Second tier is a more substantial raid that feeds directly into the major plot of the expansion, which is telegraphed or datamined well in advance and which uses an existing area as it's foundation. Nighthold in 7.1 and the Battle of Dazar'alor in 8.1 again fit the bill.

Non raid activities will have to be provided in 9.1. Could we see a new dungeon? Will the extremely dangerous Maw zone itself be updated to reflect the Covenants of the Shadowlands breaching it? It could be overhauled as the Broken Shore was for 7.2 to become a questing area, with parts of the zone preserved as the hyper dangerous 'classic' like areas Blizzard promised back at Blizzcon.

As we are raiding the Maw however, the likeliest outcome is we take it over. The souls within are freed to be judged by the arbiter and the flow of anima to the Shadowlands is restored. Probably a big Tyrande moment as well for obvious reasons. I expect there to be a reveal regarding the Jailer however who will probably be freed (he is clearly a prisoner himself) and setting up 9.2 and maybe 9.3, which will probably take place in new zones.

[Phinx]

As much as I would like to see a new class added during the runtime of an expansion, I just don't believe we will ever see it.

Sure, times changes and all that - but a new class is one of WoWs biggest selling points for an expansion. And we all know that Blizz is in desperate needs for good selling points after BfA. So I highly doubt that they will delay any crucial features like a new class for a later patch.

[Sondrelk]

So 9.1 is going to be a Maw raid (You can imagine the trailer now can't you, Patch 9.1...Jailbreak!). I figure this makes sense as it fits the pattern Blizzard have followed since Legion.

First tier is a smaller raid that is heavily related to one of the major plotlines in an expansion but not THE major plotline of an expansion, usually built up in one of the zones.

Uldir in Nazmir and the Emerald Nightmare in Val'Sharah fit the bill for this pattern, and Castle Nathria (probably the culmination of the Revendreth story) does the same.

Second tier is a more substantial raid that feeds directly into the major plot of the expansion, which is telegraphed or datamined well in advance and which uses an existing area as it's foundation. Nighthold in 7.1 and the Battle of Dazar'alor in 8.1 again fit the bill.

Non raid activities will have to be provided in 9.1. Could we see a new dungeon? Will the extremely dangerous Maw zone itself be updated to reflect the Covenants of the Shadowlands breaching it? It could be overhauled as the Broken Shore was for 7.2 to become a questing area, with parts of the zone preserved as the hyper dangerous 'classic' like areas Blizzard promised back at Blizzcon.

As we are raiding the Maw however, the likeliest outcome is we take it over. The souls within are freed to be judged by the arbiter and the flow of anima to the Shadowlands is restored. Probably a big Tyrande moment as well for obvious reasons. I expect there to be a reveal regarding the Jailer however who will probably be freed (he is clearly a prisoner himself) and setting up 9.2 and maybe 9.3, which will probably take place in new zones.

The way i always explain it is thusly:

X.0: Glorified dungeon, directly following on a levelling zone.
X.1: Main raid, finishes the story left by the endgame levelling, and is directly tied to the main theme of the story.
X.2: "Filler" raid, not directly tied to the main plot, dealing with enemies loosely, but not directly tied to the theme of the expansion. For some reason the only exceptions to this are expansions where we fight the Burning Legion.
X.3: Final raid, climactic end to the expansion dealing with the main theme set up by the beginning of the expansion. So far BfA is the only true exception.

Most expansions raids can be understood through this lens, even the raids from Cata and MoP that had several smaller raids introduced all at once can be seen to have the raids we now associate with the initial and second raid.

Cata: TofW/Bastion of Twilight as the X.0 raids, Blackwing descent as the X.1 raid. Firelands as the X.2 raid, dealing almost exclusively with an enemy not directly tied to the main bad guy. And finally Dragon Soul dealing with Deathwing directly.
MoP: Mogu'shan/Heart of fear as the X.0 raids, Terrace of eternal Spring as teh X.1 raid. Then we have Throne of Thunder as the X.2 raid, and ending with SoO as the final raid dealing with faction war.

Even BfA sticks quite closely to this.

Uldir is the introductory raid not tied to the theme of the story. BfD is the X.1 raid dealing directly with the themes of teh expansion. Then Eternal Palace is the "filler" where we deal with an enemy loosely, but not directly tied to the final boss, and then ending with Ny'alotha. Which regardless of it not fitting wit hthe theme set by the opening of the expansion still has all the hallmarks of a usual final raid.

[Atticon]

It still depends on whether the Maw Raid is from an actual raid, or if it is from something else and is just named that for filing purposes.

Well, I'm seeing six tints and two of them are defintiely PvP: black and red and blue/white and gold, on both cloth and plate.
One tint that looks like it would be the default, fitting with the raid environment. And two alternate tints. No model variations.

Either we're getting even MORE impressive Mythic/Elite PvP versions, or we're back to the pre-WoD way of doing things.

[Makabreska]

Castle Nathria raid is looking pretty good.

https://imgur.com/a/vwiOx7c

Holy shit this is stellar! Exactly how I hoped it to be!

[Chickat]

They don't add classes with .x patches.

They don't add races with patches.. Oh wait they do.

[Relapses]

They don't add races with patches.. Oh wait they do.

If you're going to use the reductive reasoning that Blizzard added Allied Races (a BfA feature) in 7.3.5 then we can pretty much say that Blizzard will do literally fucking anything for any reason. It doesn't seem likely.

[Sondrelk]

I think the second raid will probably involve us helping all the faction leaders break out.

I imagine most of the faction leaders will be freed by that point anyways, more likely it will be the rest of everyone who went with us, if freeing those is not the theme of Torghast to begin with.

If Blizzard had any sense of narrative pacing then the 9.1 raid will be framed as the last push to defeat the Jailer and Sylvanas, ending with one of them fleeing/being freed in the case of the Jailer. Leading more organically into the 9.2 raid being about defeating some other threat in the Shadowlands or elsewhere, and the final raid which i am still pretty convinced will take place in Azeroth.

[Atticon]

The entirety of Maldraxxus is like a big heavy metal album cover and I love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V-JmM0NIOM

[Wangming]

You can't win from a full on vampire castle, sorry bro.

Unless you are a furry I suppose.

Fair enough. Revendreth does have vampires. We shall have to look at the actual stories for those two zones, don't we?

[Fahrad Wagner]

Am I the only one thinking female Venthyr look really weird? It feels like I'm watching RPDR contestants (Sharon Needles says hello), and don't get me wrong, I loooooove RPDR , but this is rather unexpected. I guess they do really match their male counterparts, as those are quite nasty looking as well?

[Alanar]

Am I the only one thinking female Venthyr look really weird? It feels like I'm watching RPDR contestants (Sharon Needles says hello), and don't get me wrong, I loooooove RPDR , but this is rather unexpected. I guess they do really match their male counterparts, as those are quite nasty looking as well?

Its kinda like that age of time where people where just igly and hiding all of that by make up and wigs. They feel kinda like that, but they obviously dont feel like their ugly and is shown in their posture how proud en vain they are.

I forgot the name of that age, but the wigs, the parfum all to hode their smells, but then in vampire form. I dig it.

I cant wait to find more about them.