Shadowlands Alpha - Build 34615

[Pacster]

Shadow still nothing even though its wildly considered the worst spec so far? Hell they havent even said anything...

Come on, you still expect that to change after how many years? I actually quit the game before this expansion because I had enough of "next time it will be better"-hope/frustration. Stuff like this only shows that I did the right thing. Shadows will always be the "We don't know what to do with it but definitely make sure it ain't getting strong"-running gag.

[GMZohar1]

There obviously basic engineering icons we have had the same things before with a slightly different look.

Of course they are, Tinkerer will probably never be made, just cool to think about

[Jasper Kazai]

They've already used that no-loading-screen transition between the different boss areas of the Emerald Nightmare raid. As someone who has been farming EN on multiple characters every week recently, I don't think it works very well - you sometimes have to go back and forth around the trigger area to get it to engage. Loading screens are more reliable...

[ronaldmc]

The loading screens are used exactly to avoid what happens in the video: Have players see the scenario appearing in parts. It just pulls you out of immersion. Now apply that to some bad PCs out there and you have a really bad experience, like the character appearing in the middle of the air, then the ground appears, then the rest, part by part.

[phattsao]

So the big feature of this expansion is another version of the N'zoth Nightmare scenario? Farm dailies - do dungeon - repeat for 3 years...

[Mrbleedinggums]

The final room for Torghast should just be an endless halls style maze. You have to complete it in 30 minutes.

[Dartz1979]

Covenant Abilities
Unburden (New) Dissolve into pure anima, increasing your movement speed to 300% and propelling you forward for 20 sec. Kyrian. Kyrian. Instant.
how is nobody talking about this? new kyrian covenant ability!!! movement!

im gonnna be using that ability alot i like it

[Orisai]

They've already used that no-loading-screen transition between the different boss areas of the Emerald Nightmare raid. As someone who has been farming EN on multiple characters every week recently, I don't think it works very well - you sometimes have to go back and forth around the trigger area to get it to engage. Loading screens are more reliable...

Totally! Even with PCI Express NVMe SSDs reading data up to 32 Gbps, way faster than SATA SSDs and HDDs, loading screens are the most reliable method to get the characters and scenarios around them fully loaded into memory and/or cache, and ready for playing.

[Unholyground]

The fact that they are listening to feedback at all is amazing, in the BfA alpha they listened to literally fuck all.

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So the big feature of this expansion is another version of the N'zoth Nightmare scenario? Farm dailies - do dungeon - repeat for 3 years...

Roguelike content is awesome and addictive, they know exactly what they are doing.

[Ezekeel]

The new priest character creation armor set looks pretty bad compared to the current one?

[Alayea]

The new priest character creation armor set looks pretty bad compared to the current one?

Agreed. And overall, I don't understand their reasoning by replacing much more iconic appearances with generic as all get-out equipment.

[Logwyn]

I hope that isn't how it really loads in. Honestly looks like someone's video card can't keep up with the rendering.

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The fact that they are listening to feedback at all is amazing, in the BfA alpha they listened to literally fuck all.

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Roguelike content is awesome and addictive, they know exactly what they are doing.

I'm not sure you understand what "roguelike" really is.

There's no pera-death or multiple ways to accomplish a goal. We could also argue that there isn't any non-modle content either.

[The Cheat]

They've already used that no-loading-screen transition between the different boss areas of the Emerald Nightmare raid. As someone who has been farming EN on multiple characters every week recently, I don't think it works very well - you sometimes have to go back and forth around the trigger area to get it to engage. Loading screens are more reliable...

Well the way it's working right now in EN is actually broken. You're not supposed to just instantly teleport with no indication that it's happening.

Back prior to BFA, there was a red themed animation of sorts that covered your entire screen before unveiling the new area. The transition point was also far more responsive, and you'd know you'd hit it due to the animation.

[Twdft]

The loading screens are used exactly to avoid what happens in the video: Have players see the scenario appearing in parts. It just pulls you out of immersion. Now apply that to some bad PCs out there and you have a really bad experience, like the character appearing in the middle of the air, then the ground appears, then the rest, part by part.

No loading screen should be an option to be turned on if you have the game on SSD and enough RAM.

The game knows where you will land and could start loading assets when you start casting hearth stone. The game could start loading assets when I walk into a certain range of a portal, or a when the ship/zeppelin starts moving. Or make every portal have a short casttime used for loading.

No loading screens was one of the big features for me in vanilla. I could literally go a whole 3 hour evening play time without a single loading screen, it made the world feel much more immersive. Every shooter or point'n'click or whatever had loading screens, WoW really stood out just for that. Current WoW has us visiting 20 corners of the world in half an hour of world quests, it would be nice to get rid of loading screens for portal use.

[Unholyground]

I'm not sure you understand what "roguelike" really is.

There's no pera-death or multiple ways to accomplish a goal. We could also argue that there isn't any non-modle content either.

It has roguelike elements since you gain temporary power with every run and the layout is different every time, it is exactly what a roguelike is within the confines of WoW.

What you are explaining are additional mechanics that can appear in some roguelikes.

[Kuja]

Black hole for engineers? Must be an interesting way to travel

[chiddie]

No loading screen should be an option to be turned on if you have the game on SSD and enough RAM.

The game knows where you will land and could start loading assets when you start casting hearth stone. The game could start loading assets when I walk into a certain range of a portal, or a when the ship/zeppelin starts moving. Or make every portal have a short casttime used for loading.

No loading screens was one of the big features for me in vanilla. I could literally go a whole 3 hour evening play time without a single loading screen, it made the world feel much more immersive. Every shooter or point'n'click or whatever had loading screens, WoW really stood out just for that. Current WoW has us visiting 20 corners of the world in half an hour of world quests, it would be nice to get rid of loading screens for portal use.

If you stay in the same continent there are no loading screens even today.

It seemed cooler in Vanilla because you had only 2 huge continents and moving around was way slower than today.

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Thorgast was never intended for gearing, it's intended for legendaries and cosmetics

Ok, for me it will be near to useless then.

What a waste. Oh well, maybe in the next expansion...

[MrKnubbles]

How did they manage to make every class look worse in the character select screen? Those armor sets look terrible.

[Will]

How did they manage to make every class look worse in the character select screen? Those armor sets look terrible.

Please don't exaggerate. The druid one looks basically identical, the shaman one too except nicer shoulders. The mage one is more arcane-y. The hunter one looks shiny.

The others are a definite step backwards.

[Monkiy]

I don't understand the point of changing the preview armor sets. At best the changes are neutral (aside from the three that didn't change), but most are for the worse, and lessen the class vibe that the current sets give. The weapons largely don't even match their sets well, for some of the new ones. It's like baby's first try at transmog. We're going from sets that were specifically created to convey general class theme, to a mish-mash of pieces, or tier, with a lesser effect. Seems like a lot of work for no especially good reason, and it's failing its purpose to boot.