Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

Out of curiosity, I looked things up on wowpedia to double check things and noticed on the Runecarver's page, it mentions how the concept art of him has four fingers, not five.

So certainly could have simply been a mistake.

A mistake is the most likely outcome honestly. Two different people or even teams worked on the different characters and neither was fully integrated into figuring out smaller details like how many fingers there are and such.
Better yet, the Runecarver was never meant to be the Primus but something changed during development, or even the similarities are actually just coincidences.

If I would guess I would say this could likely be chalked up to insufficient communication between teams due to Covid.

[Nyel]

Okay, I think this is how the last raid will be in my opinion:

I imagine something similar to Siege of Orgrimmar with many different locations:

- were roaming through the Shadowlands zones and fight our enemies in several of the regions: there will be bosses in Bastion and we’re dealing with the aftermath of Kyrestia being assassinated (Uther will return and we‘re wrapping up the storyline for the Forsworn)

- in Ardenweald the Drust attack the Heart of the Forest and we’re fighting Gorak Tul again

- Revendreth won’t be a location as we already defeated Denathrius

- in Maldraxxus were helping the Runecarver / Primus to get back his power

- after that we’re back at the Maw where we are dealing with more of the forces of the Jailer and the Mawsworn and we’re going to fight Helya. We try to protect the Waystone as the Jailer wants to use it (after he got all the keys) to either have a teleport to Oribos or bring Oribos to the Maw like he did with Korthia

- after having tied Oribos to the Maw, the Jailer makes his way to the Arbiter where we are trying to defend her, but ultimately fail

- after the Jailer has control over Oribos he‘s using the power we brought to Oribos to make his way to Azeroth and the Plane of the Living: Icecrown Citadel

- at Icecrown we‘re facing first against Anduin who we will free from the Jailer‘s control with the help of Sylvanas (this battle will be reminiscent of the fight against the Lich King on top of Icecrown)

- after defeating Anduin and turning him to the Light, we‘re finally fighting the Jailer who wanted to completely break the veil between Azeroth and the Shadowlands to intertwine realities and cause a massive disruption in the universe; by sacrificing herself and with Anduin being the Bearer of the Light we’re able to defeat the Jailer, but Sylvanas at the end dies for good and will be redeemed (we all know this is coming)

- the Death of the Jailer now causes a massive disruption in the universe which opens a portal for the Void to approach Azeroth - we don’t realize this, but the Aetherals are coming to us and warn us that a Void Lord has set course to Azeroth and we must prepare for it, and that the Brokers can’t be trusted as they’re not our allies; the Nathrezim make their move

For me a raid like this, going from place to place in the Shadowlands, finally going to the Maw, Oribos and then Icecrown is in my opinion the most likely outcome for this expansion to end. Somewhere you can fit Muezhala into the picture and you’ll have it. I think the big baddies to focus on are a) Brokers, b) Nathrezim and c) Void Lords.

[froschhure]

they add some sort of corruption effects to the game until they can realease their "patch" in whatever time

[Wangming]

For me a raid like this, going from place to place in the Shadowlands, finally going to the Maw, Oribos and then Icecrown is in my opinion the most likely outcome for this expansion to end.

Now that would be funny. The main story of Shadowbringers ended with 5.3 First we had a dungeon, the Hero's Gauntlet where we fought enemies across all the zones while all our allies came to help us (including the fairy queen). After that for the final fight we climbed the Crystal Tower killed the big bad. Unfortunately one of our friends got turned into crystal in the process as he used up too much of his magic. Oh and with the big bad Elidibus dead, his nihilistic underling Fandaniel is free to pursue his plans: Said plan being the end of the fucking world and everything in it.

[Nyel]

Now that would be funny. The main story of Shadowbringers ended with 5.3 First we had a dungeon, the Hero's Gauntlet where we fought enemies across all the zones while all our allies came to help us (including the fairy queen). After that for the final fight we climbed the Crystal Tower killed the big bad. Unfortunately one of our friends got turned into crystal in the process as he used up too much of his magic. Oh and with the big bad Elidibus dead, his nihilistic underling Fandaniel is free to pursue his plans: Said plan being the end of the fucking world and everything in it.

Honestly, I had no idea about the story of Shadowbringers. This was just what I imagined in my head would be a likely outcome of Shadowlands‘ storyline.

[huth]

- were roaming through the Shadowlands zones and fight our enemies in several of the regions: there will be bosses in Bastion and we’re dealing with the aftermath of Kyrestia being assassinated (Uther will return and we‘re wrapping up the storyline for the Forsworn)

I find that highly unlikely. After Anduin's attack, she no longer has any relevance to the Jailer, and storywise having two attacks on her in short succession would be pretty unimaginative.

[Nyel]

I find that highly unlikely. After Anduin's attack, she no longer has any relevance to the Jailer, and storywise having two attacks on her in short succession would be pretty unimaginative.

One attack on her (by Anduin) which has been done and now we’re fighting for her survival and the liberation of Bastion that’s been under the control of the Forsworn now. Not another attack on Kyrestia.

[huth]

One attack on her (by Anduin) which has been done and now we’re fighting for her survival and the liberation of Bastion that’s been under the control of the Forsworn now. Not another attack on Kyrestia.

An attack we know she survives. They specificially noted that they added her raising her hand to it to show she's still alive.

Meanwhile, the Forsworn have already lost not one, but two leaders in a row in a very short time.

[Nathanyel]

Meanwhile, the Forsworn have already lost not one, but two leaders in a row in a very short time.

Yeah, I'd say that part of the story will be wrapped up in either a later part of the Kyrian Campaign, or a dungeon.

Same with the Drust, actually. While they may have been originally planned as a side swerve for 9.2, the Corona-induced delays make a fourth raid tier unlikely - and I mean that not as a naysayer, but as a realist who sympathizes with the devs for the additional hurdles due to WFH etc.

[Wangming]

Honestly, I had no idea about the story of Shadowbringers. This was just what I imagined in my head would be a likely outcome of Shadowlands‘ storyline.

Wasn't trying to imply you did. But you know back when details started to emerge about Shadowlands there was a lot of

DiS Is NoThing lIke SHAdoWbrIngeRS despite like hald a dozen parallels between the two.

So it would be very funny if the finalee were similar. If only the writing quality were the same.

[Nathanyel]

As I mentioned in this thread before, a raid taking place across different zones isn't even new to WoW.

[Lady Atia]

Yeah, I'd say that part of the story will be wrapped up in either a later part of the Kyrian Campaign, or a dungeon.

Same with the Drust, actually. While they may have been originally planned as a side swerve for 9.2, the Corona-induced delays make a fourth raid tier unlikely - and I mean that not as a naysayer, but as a realist who sympathizes with the devs for the additional hurdles due to WFH etc.

They already moved Thros from BfA to prolly Shadowlands - if we don't get it now, it may take some Legion-style expansion that finishes old story threads to finally get it.

[huth]

They already moved Thros from BfA to prolly Shadowlands - if we don't get it now, it may take some Legion-style expansion that finishes old story threads to finally get it.

Thros was in BfA. Just an Alliance-exclusive quest scenario.

[Lady Atia]

Thros was in BfA. Just an Alliance-exclusive quest scenario.

Yeah, but they may have planned more initially as they have brainstormed Thros which got later used for Ardenweald:

"Even in the case of Ardenweald, one core concept was a celestial treescape with stars. That was an idea that was part of a brainstorming session back when we were thinking about Drustvar actually. We were thinking about Thros, and one thought was 'let's make a celestial canopy where it's always night but the stars are actually within the canopy on the undersides of the trees.' That concept was so powerful that when we talked about Ardenweald it's one of the first things we brought up. It's a way to give the forest something extra. So it can be stuff like that, carried forward from previous ideas which we maybe didn't use then but were cool at the time."

https://web.archive.org/web/20200709...view-with-art-

[Nathanyel]

Brainstorming is a very early concept phase, though, and it sounds rather like they wanted to use that visual aesthetic for the Thros scenario already, not that more Thros was planned. They likely couldn't get a satisfying skybox for a phased version of a zone with a regular skybox, but Ardenweald was designed with 3D elements in the first place.

[Makabreska]

Hypu:



This new and click-baity August release seems pretty unlikely now.

[Dracullus]

I see this blue posts precisely to counter hysteria among youtube drama queens that already has spread to forums. But it won't help Blizz, how they will just think PTR will last 4 months/20 weeks.

[Nyel]

Hypu:



This new and click-baity August release seems pretty unlikely now.

Unlikely? Maybe. Impossible? No. Towellie‘s contact said that June is optimistic for a release, but August more likely. So the contact made a guess based on their recent status. PTR starting in 2 weeks brings us to a release date around mid / end June if everything goes as planned. If not, we’re heading towards July. I personally don’t expect August though.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Unlikely? Maybe. Impossible? No. Towellie‘s contact said that June is optimistic for a release, but August more likely. So the contact made a guess based on their recent status. PTR starting in 2 weeks brings us to a release date around mid / end June if everything goes as planned. If not, we’re heading towards July. I personally don’t expect August though.

To be fair he said june would be optmistic, and later he said something - possibly with hefty dose of hyperbole - about august. People just ran with that. It's doubtfull that Blizzard will finish the PTR (properly) in less than 2 months of PTR, but that still leaves july, which has always been among the more likely time frames.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Hypu:



This new and click-baity August release seems pretty unlikely now.

Unlikely. But the "nightmare scenario" of BC dropping before 9.1 still seems very likely.