9.0 General Discussion

[huth]

Sounds about right.
Curious what they will be though, I assume at least Bolvar and Tyrande. I would noramlly assume Sylvanas, though I doubt that the devs would want to heavily showcase her in an animation again after they already did so in BfA.

They could do something about a character from the Shadowlands itself. Jailer or Arbiter maybe.

[Sondrelk]

They could do something about a character from the Shadowlands itself. Jailer or Arbiter maybe.

I somehow doubt it. All the animations we have gotten so far have been about characters we already knew from previous expansions, with the biggest outliers being the Warlords one from WoD. The medium simply isnt suited to introducing a character we do not know much of anything about, it is much better in filling in moments for characters we already know about, but should know more stuff about.

[Raetary]

Sounds about right.
Curious what they will be though, I assume at least Bolvar and Tyrande. I would noramlly assume Sylvanas, though I doubt that the devs would want to heavily showcase her in an animation again after they already did so in BfA.

Tyrande would be cool and Bolvar is so obvious we might as well call it confirmed.

As for Sylvanas, i really damn hope not.
She already featured in one series, was prominent in a ton of cutscenes and cinematics including 3 full cinematic trailers.

I'd even take one focused on Nathanos, even though i hate him with burning passion.


That is though only if they go with the conventional 3 character line up.
They could always do another LoW or Shaohao-like series, which i would honestly prefer.

[Sondrelk]

Tyrande would be cool and Bolvar is so obvious we might as well call it confirmed.

As for Sylvanas, i really damn hope not.
She already featured in one series, was prominent in a ton of cutscenes and cinematics including 3 full cinematic trailers.

I'd even take one focused on Nathanos, even though i hate him with burning passion.


That is though only if they go with the conventional 3 character line up.
They could always do another LoW or Shaohao-like series, which i would honestly prefer.

A Burdens of Shaohao type deal would be nice I suppose. Though I feel that one got most of its charm from being Chinese/Asian inspired with the artstyle. I doubt it would work as well with just anything. Also not sure who it could be about, only one I could see it fitting would be Bolvar learning about the Shadowlands from the Helm of Domination, or even the Arbiter.

[matrix123mko]

If we are giving model adjustments I demand boob options!

I would love that.

[Protar95]

Yeah, recent interview has made it pretty clear that there will be portals opened in Oribos so folks can travel back and forth. Bolvar isn't even going with us in the maw. He gets mentioned as one of the people that'll join us through those portals. But there will be plenty of folks going back and forth. The portal connection is canon.

(And yeah, there will not be a time skip.)

I'm fairly sure there will be a timeskip, there's little point in making time pass differently in the shadowlands if they're not going to use that plot point.

Ion specifically mentions that there's no strict ratio of time passed on Azeroth vs in the shadowlands. This allows them to easily explain characters passing back and forth during the expansion, but still have a timeskip at the end of the expansion.

[Sondrelk]

I'm fairly sure there will be a timeskip, there's little point in making time pass differently in the shadowlands if they're not going to use that plot point.

Ion specifically mentions that there's no strict ratio of time passed on Azeroth vs in the shadowlands. This allows them to easily explain characters passing back and forth during the expansion, but still have a timeskip at the end of the expansion.

They were also very insistent on the the same time effect with Argus, and that didnt mean squat by the time we returned.

More likely it will be used to explain how basically no time has passed when we return, allowing Blizzard to circumvent the complaints of why the Nelves arestill in Stormwind as refugees despite having had over a year to resettle somewhere else.

[Protar95]

They were also very insistent on the the same time effect with Argus, and that didnt mean squat by the time we returned.

More likely it will be used to explain how basically no time has passed when we return, allowing Blizzard to circumvent the complaints of why the Nelves arestill in Stormwind as refugees despite having had over a year to resettle somewhere else.

That would be incredibly disappointing and about the least satisfying way they could handle it

Like, if they don't want Shadowlands to take much in-universe time, just set it over a short period of time. It's not like WoW's expansions actually take place in real time. IRL we get an expansion every other year, in-universe each expansion so far as been a year. So expansions already cover less time than you'd think. There's nothing stopping Blizzard from just setting Shadowlands over a few months or even weeks if they still want the repercussions of BFA to be fresh in 10.0.

Logically we're pointing towards a timeskip and it's exactly what wow needs right now...but you do have a point and Blizzard doesn't have a great track record lately when it comes to following up plot points in satisfying ways.

[Sondrelk]

That would be incredibly disappointing and about the least satisfying way they could handle it

Like, if they don't want Shadowlands to take much in-universe time, just set it over a short period of time. It's not like WoW's expansions actually take place in real time. IRL we get an expansion every other year, in-universe each expansion so far as been a year. So expansions already cover less time than you'd think. There's nothing stopping Blizzard from just setting Shadowlands over a few months or even weeks if they still want the repercussions of BFA to be fresh in 10.0.

Logically we're pointing towards a timeskip and it's exactly what wow needs right now...but you do have a point and Blizzard doesn't have a great track record lately when it comes to following up plot points in satisfying ways.

Each expansion so far has seemingly taken place in close to real time though. Would be odd to assume that this one is different.

And as before. It is just as likely, if not more so, that the time flow effect is only used to explain how nothing changes in between entering the Shadowlands and exiting it at the end of the expansion. Allowing the next one to pick up the story directly without having to also explain whatever happened to all the different characters in-between.

[Protar95]

Each expansion so far has seemingly taken place in close to real time though. Would be odd to assume that this one is different.

I mean not really though. IRL an expansion cycle is what 18-24 months. Whereas in universe just a year passes with each expac. RL time already doesn't match up with story time so if they really want to explain why there are still Nelf refugees in SW in 10.0, they can just say not much time passed.

Or hell, they could just let a year pass without much happening on Azeroth. The entire Night Elf homeland got displaced after all, not everyone would find a new home quickly, there'd likely still be refugees in SW after a year anyway. There's no point in introducing time dilation to explain why nothing happens on Azeroth while we're in the Shadowlands. The Horde and Alliance are at peace, all the major threats on Azeroth have been defeated for now, just say Azeroth had a quiet year if that's the route they're going.

[huth]

They were also very insistent on the the same time effect with Argus, and that didnt mean squat by the time we returned.

More likely it will be used to explain how basically no time has passed when we return, allowing Blizzard to circumvent the complaints of why the Nelves arestill in Stormwind as refugees despite having had over a year to resettle somewhere else.

They were? I don't remember any of that. There was such an effect going on with the Twisting Nether, but that's a whole different place. Besides, there was a huge portal connecting Argus and Azeroth, and our presence there didn't exactly last very long.

As for the NE... one year for a complete resettlement strikes me as a bit short. Especially if they have to clear out and build up a whole new place.

[Protar95]

Alleria and Turalyon fought the Legion for a thousand years (to them) in the Nether, but yeah we were in and out of Argus in a jiffy.

Time working differently in the shadowlands has been seeded since Legion (that DK who went to the SLs mentions that years for us has been mere days for him). Do people really think they've laid hints two expansions back to...explain the timeline of night elf refugee resettlement?

[Sondrelk]

They were? I don't remember any of that. There was such an effect going on with the Twisting Nether, but that's a whole different place. Besides, there was a huge portal connecting Argus and Azeroth, and our presence there didn't exactly last very long.

As for the NE... one year for a complete resettlement strikes me as a bit short. Especially if they have to clear out and build up a whole new place.

It's short for them to rebuild completely, but it is extremely long when you consider that they are refugees stuck in Stormwind, A year is the amount of time that you would expect all Nelves to have moved out, or at least settled in somewhere other than the pumpkin patch.

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Alleria and Turalyon fought the Legion for a thousand years (to them) in the Nether, but yeah we were in and out of Argus in a jiffy.

Time working differently in the shadowlands has been seeded since Legion (that DK who went to the SLs mentions that years for us has been mere days for him). Do people really think they've laid hints two expansions back to...explain the timeline of night elf refugee resettlement?

That's the thing though, it is no different from the Twisting nether. If we got absolutely nothing after returning from Argus I fail to see why we would get anything after returnign from Shadowlands.

[Nagawithlegs]

That's the thing though, it is no different from the Twisting nether. If we got absolutely nothing after returning from Argus I fail to see why we would get anything after returnign from Shadowlands.

Because they didn't want to make Azeroth change after Legion (besides the sword) but they may want to change it post-faction wars. Makes sense to me. Nothing to do with lore and everything to with Blizzards wants.

If they want to speed up Azeroth during Shadowlands for a lore reason why new settlements exist that weren't there in BFA (despite the entire world being stuck in Cata-era for almost a decade) then they will do it, for whatever reason. Not like there HAS to be a reason why new cities pop up in a magic world (would anyone REALLY be opposed to a new city popping up after Shadowlands with no lore reason but "they worked really hard")? I don't think so. The reason for the world change in Cata was DIRECTLY linked to Deathwing, and if they want to do another Cata-type expansion they may feel the need for another lore thing happening for the second revamp. (And if it's not Galakrond being literally Deathwing 2 then it would be a timeskip)

But aside from the Ion comments there are a few suspicious things involving the Infinite and Infinite-symbolism that point towards it being more than just a crackpot theory imo.

[huth]

That's the thing though, it is no different from the Twisting nether. If we got absolutely nothing after returning from Argus I fail to see why we would get anything after returnign from Shadowlands.

We got nothing with Argus because we went to Argus, not the Twisting Nether. The only time we went to the Nether in Legion was the Kil'jaeden fight. Argus is still in the physical universe just like Azeroth.

[Fawkess]

Is there anyone out there that has compiled all the available covenant abilities yet?

With the changes on alpha everyone but paladin and rogue should have had access to all 4 of them, right?

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Ah great, I was looking for something how it looked. Well I guess it is a placeholder, they probably will copy paste the arm of the old abomnation talent.

Blizzard updated their official post with all of the abilities if you want to check it out

[LemonDemonGirl]

Ok, soo my Bwonsamdi-themed 'No Alpha Club' signature making isn't going well. I can't seem to find a good border on Wow.Export, and I'm not very good at drawing on a computer so I don't know about making my own

So far I just have this for an idea



I know it's too big but Pinterest wouldn't let me upload anything smaller

[Cosmic Janitor]

Blizzard updated their official post with all of the abilities if you want to check it out

I was looking more towards a compilation of all the visual effects with some hands on testing how they behave ingame.

[Chickat]

I really hope end game outdoor content is a bit more fun/engaging than BFA and Legion. Spice the World Quests up some.

[tristannarutofan]

That would be incredibly disappointing and about the least satisfying way they could handle it

Like, if they don't want Shadowlands to take much in-universe time, just set it over a short period of time. It's not like WoW's expansions actually take place in real time. IRL we get an expansion every other year, in-universe each expansion so far as been a year. So expansions already cover less time than you'd think. There's nothing stopping Blizzard from just setting Shadowlands over a few months or even weeks if they still want the repercussions of BFA to be fresh in 10.0.

Logically we're pointing towards a timeskip and it's exactly what wow needs right now...but you do have a point and Blizzard doesn't have a great track record lately when it comes to following up plot points in satisfying ways.

1)its not a plot point its not even in the game yet. A plot point is a significant thing that alters the plot. No one cares about how the aquir have overtaken the continent on the southern hemisphere of azeroth or how the xraxtic are getting killed by demons on planet zuriq. Thats because despite being significant they arent significant to the plot.
2)i dont see how thats default the satisfying way to solve that "plot point" almost no one agrees on any given plot point in the game and its presunptious to assume ppl want a skip of some kind
3)thats not what they said. Its a FACT that time barely passing onnazeroth would be easier for a writer to work in and would have significance in that they can basically continue with the story since likely only a few non player characters will be effected by the death vacation. Some sort of revamp would be a huge undertaking it was done with the quality you want. Its entirely possible . But the fact is we dont know. So its silly to act like "it HAS to be a time skip or the devs suck
4)most importantly u need to realize that a2 years of speculation will always result in you thinking up every possible plot point u could enjoy which will alnost always result in disappointment since there is only 1 path and yet one has thought of many. Thats not healthy and its not fair to the devs to spend 2 years after the plot has been decided, coming up with every possible scenario youd like and then hold them accountable because of your 12 fantasise they didnt pick one you like