9.0 General Discussion

[Cherry123]

this is what happens when the main criterion for hiring is SJW and not talent. Why everyone on Twitter is happy with Blizzard's incompetence?

[Makabreska]

Guildless? Good luck. N'zoth is not a pug friendly boss and everybody and their mom asks for 460+ ilvl and AOTC for groups, and what few groups that don't are unlikely to be top tier so you'll spend a lot of time on the brick wall.

Besides, I thought AOTC and the associated mount go out with Shadowland's release, not the pre-patch?

Two of my guidlies managed to PuG it over two days two weeks ago, but the group was mostly an alt guild run with peeps that killed him way before.

I'm torn on Blizz decision. On one hand it's good they want to iron shit out, and that "when it's ready" returned for now, but on the other hand I really want to play SL. At least pre-patch is near.

[Valysar]

Imo it was Activision who wanted the extension to come out so early (maybe not at the same time as the PS5/Xbox release, who knows) , but for Blizzard it was clearly not possible....

[Atticon]

Well, at least I'll have time to finish the new Assassin's Creed and Cyberpunk before the new release date.

[letssee]

Well, at least I'll have time to finish the new Assassin's Creed and Cyberpunk before the new release date.

we dont know that lol, shadowlands cam come out in november too

[razorpax]

we dont know that lol, shadowlands cam come out in november too

Worst case it’s first week of December and raid is delayed until January.

I think past expansions made a lot of us expect the broken pile on beta to be released....so glad to be wrong

[Atticon]

we dont know that lol, shadowlands cam come out in november too

I really don't see the point of a two or three week delay. Heck, even "before the end of the year" is less than two months because of the holiday period.
So if they actually want a chance of tuning and feedback on that tuning, early/halfway December is where we're headed unless they delay again.

[Fkiolaris]

I really don't see the point of a two or three week delay. Heck, even "before the end of the year" is less than two months because of the holiday period.
So if they actually want a chance of tuning and feedback on that tuning, early/halfway December is where we're headed unless they delay again.

That's my take as well, regarding the dates and what they think they need to do. Too many things where flagged in Beta as grossly out of whack and Blizzard have not given themselves the tools to tune things precisely since their new systems apply to all specs of a class at best or all specs across the game at worst. Plus the levelling revamp, plus all the new content and currencies and how they interact with the new systems etc. I am really not sure how they will salvage this, as in the past they either had the systems focused per spec (ie artifacts) or released per major patch so they could study the issues created by the existing system and try to fix them with the new one. Now they don't have the first and they are going all in with the second.

Anyway, we'll see what happens, but my prediction is that they will need to take some bold decisions based on reality rather than marketing buzzwords ("meaningful choices" etc). Whether they can pull off what needs to be done (and have it properly tested) in the next two months is a different story.

[Tiradon]

Let's hope pre patch will be doing fine.

I do hope they delay it into 2021 to give them even more time.. Plus releasing after Cyberpunk and PS5 for me won't work since I'll don't have the time I want to play this properly.

I don't know let's see

[Sondrelk]

Let's hope pre patch will be doing fine.

I do hope they delay it into 2021 to give them even more time.. Plus releasing after Cyberpunk and PS5 for me won't work since I'll don't have the time I want to play this properly.

I don't know let's see

If they delay longer than a month then they better have some actual new content added to justify the extra time spent. Something like further transmogs added, or transmog restrictions loosened.
More class changes is also something I would say should be a given at that point.

[Lahis]

If they delay longer than a month then they better have some actual new content added to justify the extra time spent. Something like further transmogs added, or transmog restrictions loosened.
More class changes is also something I would say should be a given at that point.

They need all that time to havd current systems ironed out. Shadowlands is currently full of big and small flaws and bugs from the intro all the way to endgame systems.

[Tiradon]

If they delay longer than a month then they better have some actual new content added to justify the extra time spent. Something like further transmogs added, or transmog restrictions loosened.
More class changes is also something I would say should be a given at that point.

I would love to see new content, but honestly let's be real BALANCE is what matters

[crusadernero]

With this delay, I cant see them launching SL before earliest in early december. If the delay is 1 month it just seems very weird and oddly bad planned. Why even go out with the date if they are so far behind? Maybe they were pushed to give a date while knowing they wouldnt make it.

This delay means atleast 2 months. Best we can hope for is december, with raids coming in january.

BTW - Do you think they will give us something extra for this? Bonux xp, 1-2 month free gametime(lol) or whatever.

[Sondrelk]

With this delay, I cant see them launching SL before earliest in early december. If the delay is 1 month it just seems very weird and oddly bad planned. Why even go out with the date if they are so far behind? Maybe they were pushed to give a date while knowing they wouldnt make it.

This delay means atleast 2 months. Best we can hope for is december, with raids coming in january.

BTW - Do you think they will give us something extra for this? Bonux xp, 1-2 month free gametime(lol) or whatever.

I could see it being just a single month, or maybe even less if the only thing the yare planning to do is tuning, bugfixes and maybe change a covenant ability.

[Lahis]

With this delay, I cant see them launching SL before earliest in early december. If the delay is 1 month it just seems very weird and oddly bad planned. Why even go out with the date if they are so far behind? Maybe they were pushed to give a date while knowing they wouldnt make it.

This delay means atleast 2 months. Best we can hope for is december, with raids coming in january.

BTW - Do you think they will give us something extra for this? Bonux xp, 1-2 month free gametime(lol) or whatever.

Bonus XP is pointless after prepatch goes live.

[Orwell7]

Just make every Soulbind attached to a single class.
See, this way the power upgrades are there with renown unlocking the tree, easy to balance across given class' specs, and, compared to what we have now is actually balanceable.
Who on their right mind thought that "yeah we can balance 12 (!) soulbinds to be more-or-less the same FOR RESTO DRUIDS (this is a heavy sentence as it is), and AT THE SAME FREAKIN TIME those SAME (!) 12 (!) soulbinds will be more-or-less the same for every other spec in the game be it healer, tank or dps!"

Just remove this mish-mash between everything. It's impossible to balance.
Kyrian could be Priest, Paladin and Shaman
Necrolord - DK, Warlock, Warrior
Venthyr - Mage, Rogue, DH
Night Fae - Hunter, Druid, Monk

With their respective soulbinds.
There, fixed it, all the work doesn't go to shit, is actually balanceable, you don't feel bad if you choose bad, can work across all content types, provides MASSIVE replayability.

[Sondrelk]

What exactly are you suggesting with the classes being tied to different covenants? Hopefully not that if you play hunter you have to play Night Fae or something, that would really suck.


otherwise though I am not entirely sure what a better solution for Soulbinds might be. I feel the conduits are necessary to balance them as otherwise you are either bound to which ones have the best throughput abilities, and if you remove them then the problem is still defensives and utility, not as pressing a concern, but still not great.

I wonder if maybe a solution would be that you unlock the conduits through the covenant campaigns, and then you upgrade all of them at fixed points. Things like getting an item to upgrade your conduits if you defeat 3 HC bosses or something. That should at least make it so the only stickig point is the different conduits being balanced, which I imagine should be somehat simple considering you cannot stack them and there are only a few for each spec.

[crusadernero]

I could see it being just a single month, or maybe even less if the only thing the yare planning to do is tuning, bugfixes and maybe change a covenant ability.

Maybe. I think with this delay we are going to see some big changes to the game. Probably something with conduits, covenants or soulbinds.

If all they need is time to flesh out bugs and tuning, yeah maybe a november release is happening. But if they are going to change something in a big way, they are going to need time for testing etc.

[Gorsameth]

If they delay longer than a month then they better have some actual new content added to justify the extra time spent. Something like further transmogs added, or transmog restrictions loosened.
More class changes is also something I would say should be a given at that point.

Its more time for polish and fixing stuff, not more time to add more content.

Why on earth would you expect them to add new content?

[Sondrelk]

Its more time for polish and fixing stuff, not more time to add more content.

Why on earth would you expect them to add new content?

I suppose it depends on how long they are actually planning to delay. If it is a short time just for tuning and balancing then that could be all of course, though I feel that with the delay potentially being longer than a month they should feel obligated to add content where it may be lacking, or change things that might have been changed in a later patch had it come out earlier.

To give an example I would expect Blizzard to add the 5th ring to Azerite gear from the start if they had delayed BfA by longer than a month. Not strictly new content, but something tangible that leads players to actually feel like the time was worth it.
Balancing and bugfixes are important, of course, but it isnt something that is easily noticeable, and might lead to further outrage if players feel Blizzard had them stay in BfA for nothing.