Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[ExiHext]

Holy crap I can't believe I missed that!

If that isn't confirmation on 10.0 dragon isles idk what is lmao.

It's happening!!!!!!

Big oof to all the ney sayers.

While I myself believe in (and hope for) a dragon isles expac there is still a slight chance that it's something about the Emerald Dream or the often quoted "lifelands" aka realm of life. So I wouldn't be too sure about that.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

They are making it up undead lived in the undercity as of BFA with before the storm directly showing them there with a undead repair shop and all.

I have... always have the impression that Forsaken actually reside on the Undercity, nothing has ever made me think they didn't lmao. They have shops, they have guilds, they have inns. Like HOW would they not live there?!?

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While I myself believe in (and hope for) a dragon isles expac there is still a slight chance that it's something about the Emerald Dream or the often quoted "lifelands" aka realm of life. So I wouldn't be too sure about that.

I hate the idea of the lifelands so much, I'm really not on board with the idea that every cosmic power needs their own dimensional plane, less so that we need to visit them all as expansion settings.

[Chickat]

With a bit of a delay, it is finally that time of the 2-year again

Yeah its kinda sad. Normally we would have gotten the xpac reveal 2 months ago.

[Lahis]

We already know the Emerald Dream is a mirror of Azeroth. Honestly an Emerald Dream expansion ticks all these boxes.

Shadowlands was supposed to be a mirror of Azeroth and look where we are.

[Nyel]

I believe blizzard will not put any other effort into the game than to create trash systems until Hazzikostas managed to destroy the game completely. In the end only him and some raiders will still play his raiding game.

I don't know if it has something to do with Ion or just with their business approach in general. I just don't expect them to put more than the required effort into an expansion. The sales will cover the costs anyway and what happens in the next year(s) until the new expansion approaches really doesn't matter much. So give the players the bare minimum and they still will buy it.

On topic: tol y'all there's a reason why Ysera is in Shadowlands and was brought back. She'll be the bridge towards the next expansion (with Wrathion, maybe). To bring her back just for Shadowlands alone never made any sense.

[Revamp Man]

Yeah its kinda sad. Normally we would have gotten the xpac reveal 2 months ago.

Yep but they are extremely behind though cutting 9.3 probably helps but I don’t see 10.0 launching in any decent shape

[Chickat]

IMO that should be the entire mount. No body or anything, just a bunch of sparkles.

I wish to become one with the sparkles and fly away.

[Luck4]

While I myself believe in (and hope for) a dragon isles expac there is still a slight chance that it's something about the Emerald Dream or the often quoted "lifelands" aka realm of life. So I wouldn't be too sure about that.

This "slight chance" is growing scarier...

If I would bet for each speculated expansion, the probability chart looks like this:

- 50% Lifelands/Emerald Dream
- 35% Dragon Isles
- 15% World Revamp

The fun fact is that my wish list is literally the opposite.

[BaumanKing]

Lifelands

Shouldn't "Lifelands" be just life itself?

[Vasoka]

Dragon Isles confirmed?

https://www.wowhead.com/news/datamin...edition-325627

What else can be associated with a green dragon other than an emerald dream related xpac, I guess?

[LordKharon]

Yep but they are extremely behind though cutting 9.3 probably helps but I don’t see 10.0 launching in any decent shape

Maybe they are so behind because of pumping every available resource into 10.0. They would not say that but Shadowlands was basically abandoned early in 2021 even if we get a good 9.2.

I dont think 10.0 will be Lifelands related. They basically said next xpac will be back on Azeroth.

[Nyel]

Dragon Isles confirmed?

https://www.wowhead.com/news/datamin...edition-325627

What else can be associated with a green dragon other than an emerald dream related xpac, I guess?

Everything related to Dragon Isles? A green dragon is as good as every other dragon for a Dragon Isles expac and they eventually have to choose one Dragonflight.

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Maybe they are so behind because of pumping every available resource into 10.0. They would not say that but Shadowlands was basically abandoned early in 2021 even if we get a good 9.2.

Absolutely. They knew way back in early 2021 that 9.3 wasn't a thing. The Ion interview in March made this already pretty clear, but most people where doubting it back then. But the writing was on the wall that 9.3 was never about to happen.

[LorDC]

This "slight chance" is growing scarier...

If I would bet for each speculated expansion, the probability chart looks like this:

- 50% Lifelands/Emerald Dream
- 35% Dragon Isles
- 15% World Revamp

The fun fact is that my wish list is literally the opposite.

Actually, World Revamp and Dragon Isles are not mutually exclusive. They can easily make new expansion events happen in (revamped) old world, while making Dragon Isles themselves into new msx-level zone Suramar-style.
And I have serious doubts about Lifelands. What would we even do there? Another Old God expansion? It also contradicts hints about "going back to basics".

[Makabreska]

Shadowlands was supposed to be a mirror of Azeroth and look where we are.

When did they say that? Also, Emerald Dream as a primal Azeroth was established long time ago.

[Myrrh]

In the spirit of rampant and baseless speculation, I've been looking at which models received new LOD files since the beginning of Shadowlands. Granted, this is likely to simply be part of a gradual update to the game as time allows to improve level of detail options, and nothing to read into with any hype.

They've been adding in LODs 1-3 for various models, spell effects and doodads since the 9.0 beta, but with seemingly no rhyme or reason to which models they opt for. There are a lot of wildlife (tigers, murlocs galore, yak, shoveltusk, eagle & many more), as well as seemingly random choices like protodrake mounts, the Heart of the Aspects mount, Teron Gorefiend (BT version), the legion female spider demon things, Invincible, stormforged vrykul, and for some reason a 'leytree' doodad from Legion (Azure dragonflight, anyone?). There are quite a lot more.

There's also the Taerar_q one which was noticed ages ago in this thread. I thought there was nothing to this (probably isn't!), but the Taerar_q updates also include new BLP files and 'updated' anim/skin files. Even if the updates are only caused by an accidental save, somebody has really been making an effort to check out Taerar behind the curtains. A little curious given we have much more solid evidence to be worked up around green dragons now. Heart of the Aspects is worth raising an eyebrow at too, like why would you prioritise such an underused model?

While these don't have any apparent connection, it would make sense if they were prioritising 'LOD-ing' models they intended to use again for the next expansion. The wildlife focus in particular was what made me start speculating this - new or revamped zones on Azeroth would likely use a lot of recolours of existing flora and fauna rather than whole new types of creatures. If I understand anything about LOD files (and I sure don't), they seem to apply to all skins that can be used with a given model. This would mean that if they were reusing these models, the corresponding new mobs etc could only be reskins rather than having drastic changes (my first thought seeing the spiderdemon model included was that it would make a decent skeleton for a female drakonid... alas, that would probably need a separate .m2 file).

Anyhow, food for thought or instant dismissal. Really this is just the result of me being weirded out that they made a conscious effort to improve the leytree model of all things.

[ExiHext]

Actually, World Revamp and Dragon Isles are not mutually exclusive. They can easily make new expansion events happen in (revamped) old world, while making Dragon Isles themselves into new msx-level zone Suramar-style.
And I have serious doubts about Lifelands. What would we even do there? Another Old God expansion? It also contradicts hints about "going back to basics".

I still don't think we get a world revamp ever. Too much effort for the benefit. I can only see them doing what they did with Arathi and Dark Shore. Two or three areas per expac but not whole continents. But that's just my personal guess.

Realm of life sounds a bit...let's say redundant after being in the realm of death. Also there is Ion (was it Ion?) saying that the next expac will be more grounded. On the other hand even "grounded" or "back to basics" leaves A LOT of room. Legion started quite grounded and ended in space. But (again personal guess) I don't think we will tackle the next cosmic force realm so soon. Though I can see Elune become relevant somehow after the build-up we had for her so far.

In the end we might get a Dragon Isle/Lifelands mash-up.

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When did they say that? Also, Emerald Dream as a primal Azeroth was established long time ago.

Not sure if I remember correctly, but weren't the shadowlands where we went after ingame death in the beginning? So Azeroth just black and white? And that got retconned somehwere along the way? I mean, one of the DK spells (Wraith Walk) read something like "Sidestep into the Shadowlands, breaking Root effects and increasing your movement speed by 70% for until canceled". I don't think it was a sidestep into Bastion or Revendreth, just something like a phase change.

[Makabreska]

Not sure if I remember correctly, but weren't the shadowlands where we went after ingame death in the beginning? So Azeroth just black and white? And that got retconned somehwere along the way? I mean, one of the DK spells (Wraith Walk) read something like "Sidestep into the Shadowlands, breaking Root effects and increasing your movement speed by 70% for until canceled". I don't think it was a sidestep into Bastion or Revendreth, just something like a phase change.

Oh, so they simply did a token explanation for gameplay part of corpse running.

[YogSoggoth]

9.2.5 will probably have some loose ends being tied up and bring us some QoL improvements like the removal of the dreaded covenant system (the abilities being treated as talents you can change by talking with a new NPC in Oribos) and timewalking rework (weekly rotation instead of a horror we have now)
10.0 is either Dragon Isles (with either 5 new zones dedicated to each known dragonflight or better yet, 5 new zones dedicated to NEW wacky dragonflights) or Light vs Void expansion with Yrel invading Azeroth.
That's my take of it anyway.

[Lahis]

Shouldn't "Lifelands" be just life itself?

Life is a cosmic force, so it has a plane for itself.

[Plehnard]

To add to the M+ participation numbers dropping, it really isn't a fair estimate as even in my guild (Semi-casual, we do raid mythic but usually don't clear it before next raid) the participation has went down in M+ over the months even if the people are still subbed and active, most people got their BIS drop from dungeons and aren't bothered that much with pushing keys. I for example while I have been subbed for all of SL and play almost daily have not done a M+ in over 2 months I think.

Can confirm that. Most dropped M+ to a minimum after they got their KSM with only a very few in the mood to push for 20+ or get at least the portals.