Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Veya30]

Ye, that's what im referring to.
We are getting the cross promo tomorrow with the new HS feature.

Blizz will probably want to post something alongside it for extra attention.

At this point Blizzard needs to add some content to the game if they plan on competing with Endwalker. I read once that it took them a week to make Molten Core; they should make a new raid to come out around the time of Endwalker and a new 5 player dungeon. Create a timeless isle like zone as well to attract players. At this point, they need something to add on to Korthia if they hope to keep players attention during Endwalker.

[Sondrelk]

At this point Blizzard needs to add some content to the game if they plan on competing with Endwalker. I read once that it took them a week to make Molten Core; they should make a new raid to come out around the time of Endwalker and a new 5 player dungeon. Create a timeless isle like zone as well to attract players. At this point, they need something to add on to Korthia if they hope to keep players attention during Endwalker.

Molten Core is also in the very bottom tier of WoW raids, barely edged out by stuff like the BfA mini-raid, or worse still the WotLK Dragonblight mini-raids.

Raids and dungeons being made on the fly is not really feasible. Even the one week for MC isn't really applicable since the team was likely working on encounters to begin with.
What Blizzard needs to do is focus on evergreen content that can be made in a more modular fashion. Like Timewalking giving rewards for doing old content like Sons of Hodir dailies for WotLK, or like we see now with Timewalking Legion M+.

[Fiercelord]

The leak season has not started yet? Honestly, that would keep me excited.

[Sondrelk]

The leak season has not started yet? Honestly, that would keep me excited.

Leak season begins usually a month or two before Blizzcon, and since we won't be seeing that until late February (I think) leak season is probably not going to begin until late December.

What we are really missing though is the ending leak season, when the forums discuss how the expansion will end, leading up to the next expansion. That one likely didnt happen because noone really seems to care about Shadowlands' story beyond a few choice characters like the Uther/Arthas storyline, and whether Sylvanas will bite it or not.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Saddest thing is that you are probably right! feelsbad

Gotta pat the true target audience for Blizzard games... CHINA!

*Looks at China's recent bans on Video Games.*

Well then adding more pronouns is having the opposite effect.

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The leak season has not started yet? Honestly, that would keep me excited.

It started like a month ago where we had 3 leaks in a week.

Problem is we have nothing really to go off of. Everyone's in agreement on "World Revamp + Dragon Isles" right now. Throw in a little doomsaying for the haters and you're set.

At this point we're probably stuck in neutral until 9.2 hits the PTR and inevitably there's some file left in that spells out what's happening. Like the Kul'tiras_ClothChest_1 or the MawTesting map.

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Leak season begins usually a month or two before Blizzcon, and since we won't be seeing that until late February (I think) leak season is probably not going to begin until late December.

What we are really missing though is the ending leak season, when the forums discuss how the expansion will end, leading up to the next expansion. That one likely didnt happen because noone really seems to care about Shadowlands' story beyond a few choice characters like the Uther/Arthas storyline, and whether Sylvanas will bite it or not.

I mean it also doesn't help that a TON of people expect 9.2 to be the ending and Blizz spelled out directly in-game where we're going for 9.2 and why.

[Sondrelk]

I mean it also doesn't help that a TON of people expect 9.2 to be the ending and Blizz spelled out directly in-game where we're going for 9.2 and why.

That is very true, not to mention that teh final patch leaks tends to begin once the X.2 patch is solidified and we begin really seeing the bigger picture of an expansion.

Of course, it should be stated that BfA was a particularly active leak festival because of a number of factors. How integral characters were, discussing not just raids, but warfronts, whether the final patch would cash in on the Faction war/Sylvanas plotline or the N'zoth plotline, where it would take place. An absolute avalanche of topics ripe for discussion.
Even if players were really invested in SL there isnt really any real discussion to be had, we have no idea what the 9.2 zone will be like, or what we will really do there. The Janitor and Anduin are the only characters we can assume will be antagonistic, and the only real question of ancilliary features is whether Torghast will get better rewards.

[Nyel]

I mean it also doesn't help that a TON of people expect 9.2 to be the ending and Blizz spelled out directly in-game where we're going for 9.2 and why.

False flag maybe?

And for leak season to begin, we would need the confirmation that 9.2 is the final patch. I know some still expect 9.3 - based on that leak season barely makes sense until mid 2022.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

That is very true, not to mention that teh final patch leaks tends to begin once the X.2 patch is solidified and we begin really seeing the bigger picture of an expansion.

Of course, it should be stated that BfA was a particularly active leak festival because of a number of factors. How integral characters were, discussing not just raids, but warfronts, whether the final patch would cash in on the Faction war/Sylvanas plotline or the N'zoth plotline, where it would take place. An absolute avalanche of topics ripe for discussion.
Even if players were really invested in SL there isnt really any real discussion to be had, we have no idea what the 9.2 zone will be like, or what we will really do there. The Janitor and Anduin are the only characters we can assume will be antagonistic, and the only real question of ancilliary features is whether Torghast will get better rewards.

I don't know if you meant to say The Janitor but I like it.


Honestly I think part of why BFA was so... active is a lot more people had a stake in it. BFA's patches tended to do a lot, they were generally adding new Warfronts, generally adding a Heritage Armor or two, Allied Races were always on the table, and Blizz was constantly tinkering with (read: fucking up) Azerite Armor. PLUS the usual zones/raids content.

Shadowlands in patches you get... another subzone to the maw that plays the same way the maw does. Maybe some censorship to try and control their PR fiasco. And no matter what we all know the final boss is Us VS The Janitor. At least BFA you had something of an argument on "Sylvanas VS N'Zoth, who's 8.3 who's 9.0?"

[Veya30]

That is very true, not to mention that teh final patch leaks tends to begin once the X.2 patch is solidified and we begin really seeing the bigger picture of an expansion.

Of course, it should be stated that BfA was a particularly active leak festival because of a number of factors. How integral characters were, discussing not just raids, but warfronts, whether the final patch would cash in on the Faction war/Sylvanas plotline or the N'zoth plotline, where it would take place. An absolute avalanche of topics ripe for discussion.
Even if players were really invested in SL there isnt really any real discussion to be had, we have no idea what the 9.2 zone will be like, or what we will really do there. The Janitor and Anduin are the only characters we can assume will be antagonistic, and the only real question of ancilliary features is whether Torghast will get better rewards.

In the Shadowlands book that came in the summer; it mentioned 4 zones at the end of the book. 1 was Korthia, which we got in 9.1, but it had 3 other zones that have yet to be visited. 2 were required to reach the sepulcher and the sepulcher would be the 3rd zone, or Zereth Mortis.

I figured 9.2 would be the 2 zones needed to get to Zereth Mortis; kind of like a Mechagon/Nazjatar 8.2 patch; then 9.3 would be Zereth Mortis. Thinking Zereth Mortis is on Azeroth somewhere, maybe a revamped zone in Northrend or just a new zone out in the Inbetween somewhere.

However, if 9.2 is the last patch, I could see all 3 zones opened up and we get one of the biggest content patches in WoW to date.

[Kiivar86]

The leak season has not started yet? Honestly, that would keep me excited.

There were a smattering of leaks a few weeks back. I've been intending to try and compile them like someone did for Shadowlands, but I need to get around to...y'know, doing that.

[Seasz]

I think you guys are seriously overlooking the fact that wotlk classic is 100% releasing sometime late next year. They could easily shift all focus and hype towards wotlk release while working on 10.0 well through 2023

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I think you guys are seriously overlooking the fact that wotlk classic is 100% releasing sometime late next year. They could easily shift all focus and hype to the wotlk release while working on 10.0 well through 2023

Yes they'll use Wrath Classic in Early 2023 as an excuse to pull Retail down for 2 years and make WoW2. </s>

[Veya30]

I think you guys are seriously overlooking the fact that wotlk classic is 100% releasing sometime late next year. They could easily shift all focus and hype towards wotlk release while working on 10.0 well through 2023

That might be enough to bring MadSeasonShow back to the Classic game. I think him and a lot of other people were wanting Wrath classic over TBCC.

[Sondrelk]

I think you guys are seriously overlooking the fact that wotlk classic is 100% releasing sometime late next year. They could easily shift all focus and hype to the wotlk release while working on 10.0 well through 2023

They really couldnt. WotLK might have been the peak of WoW in playerbase but compared to just Classic the genie is already out of the bottle, they might gain a chunk of players back for a while, but really there is no substitute for the actual live version of WoW when it comes to player retention.

That being said, 10.0 will likely be no later than Q2 2023 anyways, at that point Blizzard could have shuffled in both 9.2 and a decently chunky 9.3 and still have the usual long drought period between.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

They really couldnt. WotLK might have been the peak of WoW in playerbase but compared to just Classic the genie is already out of the bottle, they might gain a chunk of players back for a while, but really there is no substitute for the actual live version of WoW when it comes to player retention.

That being said, 10.0 will likely be no later than Q2 2023 anyways, at that point Blizzard could have shuffled in both 9.2 and a decently chunky 9.3 and still have the usual long drought period between.

Yeah sarcasm aside it's clear that Classic just... is losing its mojo steadily. At least if you wanted an authentic, slower experience. Without the in-flow of new players the game has kinda degraded into "use a speed leveling guide to hit the cap and then spam content with your guild."

Wrath will probably have the same issues BC's had. Where pre-Northrend is a ghost town except for maybe 20 DKs dungeon spamming in Outland and everyone's just sitting in Dalaran.

Which is sure better retention power than Retail's current decayed state of Dailies Logging, but it isn't going to be the "second coming of 12 million subscribers" or anything remotely close to that.

[Dracullus]

I think you guys are seriously overlooking the fact that wotlk classic is 100% releasing sometime late next year. They could easily shift all focus and hype towards wotlk release while working on 10.0 well through 2023

WoTLK Classic, cash printer Diablo Immortal, Overwatch 2, Diablo IV... if there was any convenient period for Blizz to not release expac in 2022 or even early 2023, it is now.

And it would be good not only with 9.3 or not context. This game just need expac like Legion with more fresh ideas. Also playerbase need to chill and get "hungry" for WoW content like back in 2016 (2014 as well, but WoD wasted this potential).

[Sondrelk]

Yeah sarcasm aside it's clear that Classic just... is losing its mojo steadily. At least if you wanted an authentic, slower experience. Without the in-flow of new players the game has kinda degraded into "use a speed leveling guide to hit the cap and then spam content with your guild."

Wrath will probably have the same issues BC's had. Where pre-Northrend is a ghost town except for maybe 20 DKs dungeon spamming in Outland and everyone's just sitting in Dalaran.

Which is sure better retention power than Retail's current decayed state of Dailies Logging, but it isn't going to be the "second coming of 12 million subscribers" or anything remotely close to that.

The problem with version of Classic beyond Vanilla is that the content is still there. With Classic you could experience stuff that isnt available like the old Tirion FOrdring questline or the old Forsaken questlines.
TBC at least has a very distinct flavor of old MMO that makes it marginally interesting, but when you get to WotLK it is just going to become aware that you are really just playing hte same game as now with different classes. WotLK is where the raid-or-die mentality began, and where the game finally lost the last remnants of its old identity of raids being a greater part of a whole instead of like now where raids are what is central to the game and the rest is essentially just fluff.

[Kiivar86]

Even with all the troubles they've had, I cannot possibly conceive of a scenario where we don't get a new expansion until 2023.

End of 2022, sure. But 2023? That would be the killing blow to live.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The problem with version of Classic beyond Vanilla is that the content is still there. With Classic you could experience stuff that isnt available like the old Tirion FOrdring questline or the old Forsaken questlines.
TBC at least has a very distinct flavor of old MMO that makes it marginally interesting, but when you get to WotLK it is just going to become aware that you are really just playing hte same game as now with different classes. WotLK is where the raid-or-die mentality began, and where the game finally lost the last remnants of its old identity of raids being a greater part of a whole instead of like now where raids are what is central to the game and the rest is essentially just fluff.

I think BC and some of Wrath still has some justification in the Classic sphere just because their content has been so stripped-down and neutered over time.

But I also think Blizz has catered much harder toward the retail mindset of players, just looking at their plans for Season of Mastery.

Which is a shame because a huge chunk of the game is being cut off and for a lot of us that was the part that we remembered most fondly about those old experiences. You know, the "journey" aspect.

[Sondrelk]

Even with all the troubles they've had, I cannot possibly conceive of a scenario where we don't get a new expansion until 2023.

End of 2022, sure. But 2023? That would be the killing blow to live.

Depends like always on what 10.0 is, and in htis case whether we are getting a 9.3 patch.
If we get 9.3 then unless its literally just a holdover patch between 9.2 and 10.0 that consists of maybe a mini-raid at most then 10.0 in 2022 is almost definitely not happening, and if it is then we are talking late November early December.

However 10.0 could be something really ambitious like the always enticing option of a world revamp, or generally an expansion that tries to change something fundamental like talents or somesuch. In that case the drought between 9.2 and 10.0 could be extra long to facillitate the development time needed.