They Really Are Saving 9.1 for Blizzconline

[Edward Wu]

Frankly, if that is really the case, then I have to say that's pathetic. I never would have figured SL for a content drought expansion. They assured us time and again that the pandemic wasn't noticeably affecting their production, especially as its digital and can easily be worked at from home.

Shadowlands is now fully 2 months old and there hasn't even been a shred of info on a 9.1 PTR, let alone an actual release. Legion had its 7.1 "Karazhan" patch released to the live servers less than 2 months after launch, so we are now on track for mirroring BfA's godawful release schedule and seeing the .1 patch approximately 4 months after expansion release.

I feel that mass unsubs are just on the horizon.

[Nalam the Venom]

Why would we need more dungeons or dailies, Weeklies etc tho?

It just adds to the chore load, The game is fine for what it is atm.

[Rucati]

Big patches every 4-6 months seems about right, not sure why you'd expect anything else. If we figure Shadowlands will go for 2 years and will end on 9.3 then a big patch every 6 months would be fine.

In fact that's significantly better than getting a new patch every 4 months and then a full year of 9.3, would much much much rather have less frequent patches if it means a shorter drought between expansions.

[Kumorii]

Why would you assume that .1 would be 2 months from now?
Everyone I know already expect reveal to be at Blizzconline, since that's just logical. PTR will probably hit at the same time or the day / weekly reset following the reveal. Not sure why it's a surprise that they save the reveal for blizzconline

[Dracullus]

I'm suprised as well. Blizzcon reveal means no Q1 patch release, simple as that. I would expect drought like that around TBC release, not now when hype is still pretty high.

[Lucetia]

Shadowlands is now fully 2 months old and there hasn't even been a shred of info on a 9.1 PTR, let alone an actual release. Legion had its 7.1 "Karazhan" patch released to the live servers less than 2 months after launch, so we are now on track for mirroring BfA's godawful release schedule and seeing the .1 patch approximately 4 months after expansion release.

You do realize expansion patches always vary right and there is no concrete schedule?

MoP - Launch was September 25. Patch 5.1 was November 27 [63 days]
WOD - Launch was November 13. Patch 6.1 was February 24 [103 days]
Legion - Launch was August 30. Patch 7.1 was October 25 8 [56 days]
BFA - Launch was August 14. Patch 8.1 was December 11 [119 days]
Shadowlands - Launch was November 23. No 9.1 as of today January 26 [64 days]

Breaking it down further.

MoP - Released Landfall campaign, Brawler's guild, more scenarios were the bigger features
WoD - Patch 6.1 was mainly bugfixes and such as Blackrock Foundry opened a few weeks prior and had the second raid in the initial game just locked.
Legion - Patch 7.1 added a Kharazhan mega-dungeon, Insurrection campaign and Trial of Valor
BFA - Patch 8.1 added Darkshore Warfront, Faction Assaults, Battle of Dazar'alor raid, 2 new island expeditions, more war campaign

So if we look at the bigger picture, rather than complaining "Legion did it better" you get a better picture. The two patches with the shortest release time added fewer things. MoP / Legion both essentially just added quests and a reused dungeon material. MoP had scenario recycle zone content and placed mobs and stuff here and there so less work needed over all. Trial of Valor was a lot of reused assets as well and Kharazhan was in the same boat with some new sprinkled in. Reusing content makes for shorter turn around time in the end.

WoD is just a terrible outlier all around and there's no explaining it especially when you break down the entire 8.1 patch.

BFA added a warfront, a raid, new islands and more story which was a lot more than Legion did. True there was some reused assets like Legion had, but there was a lot more "new" needed for both items making it take longer.

Shadowlands is only 64 days old. We still have another 40 days (month and a half) before people can start getting upset. There's also this whole pandemic thing going on. Sure, they can say it doesn't affect them as much but it will still affect them regardless. Noticeably just means something that is easily seen. People aren't going to notice the patch being a few weeks older than others whereas if it was a few months late then sure.

Overall, it's not the end of the world. Your post is basically saying "I dislike how SL is right now and I want a patch to change everything." which is fine, but don't try to spin it as something it isn't.

[Chickat]

9.1 on ptr the week after blizzconline at the end of February.
9.1 on live servers in the middle of April.

[Dizzyswiftz]

You do realize expansion patches always vary right and there is no concrete schedule?

MoP - Launch was September 25. Patch 5.1 was November 27 [63 days]
WOD - Launch was November 13. Patch 6.1 was February 24 [103 days]
Legion - Launch was August 30. Patch 7.1 was October 25 8 [56 days]
BFA - Launch was August 14. Patch 8.1 was December 11 [119 days]
Shadowlands - Launch was November 23. No 9.1 as of today January 26 [64 days]

Breaking it down further.

MoP - Released Landfall campaign, Brawler's guild, more scenarios were the bigger features
WoD - Patch 6.1 was mainly bugfixes and such as Blackrock Foundry opened a few weeks prior and had the second raid in the initial game just locked.
Legion - Patch 7.1 added a Kharazhan mega-dungeon, Insurrection campaign and Trial of Valor
BFA - Patch 8.1 added Darkshore Warfront, Faction Assaults, Battle of Dazar'alor raid, 2 new island expeditions, more war campaign

So if we look at the bigger picture, rather than complaining "Legion did it better" you get a better picture. The two patches with the shortest release time added fewer things. MoP / Legion both essentially just added quests and a reused dungeon material. MoP had scenario recycle zone content and placed mobs and stuff here and there so less work needed over all. Trial of Valor was a lot of reused assets as well and Kharazhan was in the same boat with some new sprinkled in. Reusing content makes for shorter turn around time in the end.

WoD is just a terrible outlier all around and there's no explaining it especially when you break down the entire 8.1 patch.

BFA added a warfront, a raid, new islands and more story which was a lot more than Legion did. True there was some reused assets like Legion had, but there was a lot more "new" needed for both items making it take longer.

Shadowlands is only 64 days old. We still have another 40 days (month and a half) before people can start getting upset. There's also this whole pandemic thing going on. Sure, they can say it doesn't affect them as much but it will still affect them regardless. Noticeably just means something that is easily seen. People aren't going to notice the patch being a few weeks older than others whereas if it was a few months late then sure.

Overall, it's not the end of the world. Your post is basically saying "I dislike how SL is right now and I want a patch to change everything." which is fine, but don't try to spin it as something it isn't.

This is some pretty healthy information. I Was wondering about the patch schedule myself, since we've barely seen a tuning pass so far as of Jan 25. Id be pretty happy with some class tuning at this point, Im aware this week they did "some", but I feel it was lackluster. Although I do agree with other users, in that we have a lot to do right now -IF- you choose to access ALL of the parts of Shadowlands, IE PVE/PVP/WQ's/Pet Battles/Weeklys/M+. But if you choose just one of those avenues, shadowlands WOULD seem rather "content dry" to some users. =] cheers

[slime]

I would be down for about 12 months of this before they need to release 9.1

[Lochton]

Frankly, if that is really the case, then I have to say that's pathetic. I never would have figured SL for a content drought expansion. They assured us time and again that the pandemic wasn't noticeably affecting their production, especially as its digital and can easily be worked at from home.

Shadowlands is now fully 2 months old and there hasn't even been a shred of info on a 9.1 PTR, let alone an actual release. Legion had its 7.1 "Karazhan" patch released to the live servers less than 2 months after launch, so we are now on track for mirroring BfA's godawful release schedule and seeing the .1 patch approximately 4 months after expansion release.

I feel that mass unsubs are just on the horizon.

Only 2 months has passed. The world is not ending.

Makes sense to release 9.1 info at BlizzConline to make content for that as well.

[Nnyco]

We are two months in and you yell content drought, rofl.

[iosdeveloper]

all i want is TBC release not be strategically postponed to the "last raid patch" drought

[Lucetia]

Show me your proof. I will take Blizzard's word over an anonymous person who thinks they know better than them simply declaring a fact with nothing to back it up.

Show proof of what? All the patch info is readily available to search on google. Or do you mean Blizzard saying noticeable? If so, ask the OP since they used those words. Next time when you ask for proof please be a bit more clear on what you are asking as your quoted section doesn't tell me anything.

[rayvio]

keep in mind that Shadowlands launch was delayed. so stuff that might have been pushed into the first patch could have actually ended up going live with the launch, it's also possible it went the other way and what would have been ready for an early patch was delayed for a later one
what we do know is that we have only just finished the weekly campaign storyline and the weekly torghast storyline, progress in raids and mythic+ are at least a little slower than previous expansions as gearing up is slower and that very little of the playerbase is currently claiming to have run out of things to do

often we know a little about what the next content patch will be because there's an obvious gaping hole waiting to be filled such as Tanaan Jungle, Broken Shore, Isle of Thunder zones we can't yet access or have no content, that's actually not the case this time. we know there are other afterlives, we'll probably explore some more but we don't know what they are or anything yet. we know that there is a hole but this time we can't already see where it is
we also have some dangling storylines that are sure to continue but it's not so obvious which will be the big thread that ties them all together this time, there's lots of little things and of course the big strand of the Jailer and Sylvanas but we know we're not going straight there and that one or more of the smaller threads will lead us around them a bit but we don't know which

normally there's a more obvious path being prepared in game and Blizzard then tell us bits and pieces to fill in the gaps a little and keep us speculating. this time things are a little more mysterious and it's rather fitting that we're being allowed to wonder and wait. this quiet isn't a good long term strategy but for the short term, for now, I think it's probably a smart move. time will tell if they let it go on too long

[rrayy]

Show proof of what? All the patch info is readily available to search on google. Or do you mean Blizzard saying noticeable? If so, ask the OP since they used those words. Next time when you ask for proof please be a bit more clear on what you are asking as your quoted section doesn't tell me anything.

I meant Blizzard saying noticeable. You outright said this:

Sure, they can say it doesn't affect them as much but it will still affect them regardless.

I'll take their word over someone declaring the opposite with nothing to back it up. You basically said "Blizzard is lying and I know the truth. Trust me". So, show me your proof that it did affect them.

[WowIsDead64]

Frankly, if that is really the case, then I have to say that's pathetic. I never would have figured SL for a content drought expansion. They assured us time and again that the pandemic wasn't noticeably affecting their production, especially as its digital and can easily be worked at from home.

Shadowlands is now fully 2 months old and there hasn't even been a shred of info on a 9.1 PTR, let alone an actual release. Legion had its 7.1 "Karazhan" patch released to the live servers less than 2 months after launch, so we are now on track for mirroring BfA's godawful release schedule and seeing the .1 patch approximately 4 months after expansion release.

I feel that mass unsubs are just on the horizon.

Yeah, we don't even have any leaks now and Blizzcon is month away + around 2 months of PTR = half a year since release. No, I don't need more content now. But SL requires many fixes right now and Blizzard have gone to complete radio silence on any problems, as if everything will be fixed in 9.1 only, that would be way too late.

[Schizoide]

Shadowlands is only 64 days old. We still have another 40 days (month and a half) before people can start getting upset.

People can get upset over pretty much anything!

You're forgetting that patches go on the PTR for a month or two minimum. So if that doesn't happen until Blizzcon we're realistically looking at April or May for patch 9.1. I'm not enraged by that or anything, even without a global pandemic it's just a videogame, but got to admit 9.0 content will be pretty worn out by then.

[Lucetia]

I meant Blizzard saying noticeable. You outright said this:

I'll take their word over someone declared that it did affect them with nothing to back it up. You basically said "Blizzard is lying and I know the truth. Trust me". So, show me your proof that it did affect them.

For starters the OP wrote:

They assured us time and again that the pandemic wasn't noticeably affecting their production, especially as its digital and can easily be worked at from home.

Secondly, you might want to try and start googling before you come up with your response and read the entire thread and quoted areas. My comment was directed at the OP saying "noticeably". If fact a quick google search shows this tweet of them saying they will do the best they can.

Next are you wanting to tell me that the pandemic has zero impact on Blizzard just because they said so? They are working from homes which is likely giving them less tools than they did at the office. It is a bit harder to communicate across the office since they can't get up and ask easily or shoot an email that likely pops up on their screen instantly at the office but while at home will be delayed in response. Then we have Blizzard being located in California who has faced the most shutdowns and issues with the pandemic. Then lastly we have them delaying Shadowlands because it wasn't ready, which means that some things did affect them.

So my comment was towards "noticeably affect them". Which is something anyone can observe.

Overall if you can't use google, read the thread or think about the scenario and see how it affects them then I don't know what to say. The proof is all there you are just wanting to ignore it so you can say "But mom they said Blizzard was lying! They want us to trust them!". Which I never said they were lying. I just said their terms of how much it affects them is different than others. I mean these are the same people who came up with a new definition of "Soon".

People can get upset over pretty much anything!

True, but doesn't mean people should get upset over anything :P There are far worse things to get upset over.

You're forgetting that patches go on the PTR for a month or two minimum. So if that doesn't happen until Blizzcon we're realistically looking at April or May for patch 9.1. I'm not enraged by that or anything, but got to admit 9.0 content will be pretty worn out by then.

Even then a PTR cycle can last up to a month. Renown won't cap at 40 until March 9th (if I remember my calculations right) and then say they give us a 2 week leeway before patch and that puts it on par with where it should be. Which is towards the end of March / early April.

[Vampyrr]

I meant Blizzard saying noticeable. You outright said this:



I'll take their word over someone declaring the opposite with nothing to back it up. You basically said "Blizzard is lying and I know the truth. Trust me". So, show me your proof that it did affect them.

That isn't even close to what she said stop trying to hamfist things in there. The pandemic affects just about everything.

[Edward Wu]

We are two months in and you yell content drought, rofl.

Yeah, to people who aren't addicted, this is the situation. 90% of the expansion is littered with low quality chore work and people are starting to get tired of it.