Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Shadochi]

Man reading over that Twitter Spaces recap makes me somehow less excited. Mostly because it was a lot of "things will work the same way they did in Shadowlands."

What specifically? To me it seems that they are going to just carry over the ok stuff from SL (ZM style outdoor zone progression, vault being an upgrade over a single chest and such)

[Valysar]

"The expansion is quite far along, Alpha is coming soon."

In May

[Sondrelk]

Man reading over that Twitter Spaces recap makes me somehow less excited. Mostly because it was a lot of "things will work the same way they did in Shadowlands."

And what exactly did Shadowlands do wrong that hasnt been singled out as a thing that is actually being changed?
Shadowlands with a better theme, no covenants, and a strong focus on making the base systems better seems like the ideal expansion to me.

[Shadochi]

And what exactly did Shadowlands do wrong that hasnt been singled out as a thing that is actually being changed?
Shadowlands with a better theme, no covenants, and a strong focus on making the base systems better seems like the ideal expansion to me.

I wouldn't even say no covenants. Keep covenants but remove the class abilities and soulbinds and covenants are a great system for outdoor progression and cosmetics

[Makabreska]

Man reading over that Twitter Spaces recap makes me somehow less excited. Mostly because it was a lot of "things will work the same way they did in Shadowlands."

Except no borrowed power (outside of tiers), evergreen talent system, bigger zones, flying from the start, alt catch up from the start, more account wide stuff (maybe even rep, according to what they said), no mission table, easy "cov" switching from the start, no big bad revealed yet and more. So ye, SL 2.0 confirmed, I guess.

[Xilurm]

"The expansion is quite far along, Alpha is coming soon."

In May

Well May is in 3 days tbh

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They do need to work on the outdoor content to make it better and replayable, thats for sure(I didn't mind borrowed powers but I concede that people didn't like them, granted they take a blind eye to tier sets).

[Ersula]

I wouldn't even say no covenants. Keep covenants but remove the class abilities and soulbinds and covenants are a great system for outdoor progression and cosmetics

That appears to be what the 5 dragonflight covenants are. Alternate progression but for reputations.

[boyzma]

From what I listened to, and I'll admit I didn't listen to the whole thing, but it cleared up a few speculations. So no, no tank spec, no "regular" flying at first, you befriend your drake and together you learn dragon riding, and sadly no Tuskkar. Besides the guy saying awesome way too many times, thought it was a good interview.

[Shadochi]

That appears to be what the 5 dragonflight covenants are. Alternate progression but for reputations.

Dont think we are getting anything related to flights, but to 4 major factions of the Isles (probably Dragons, Centaurs, Tuskarr and whatever is left as ally in one of the zones)

[Cheezits]

Dont think we are getting anything related to flights, but to 4 major factions of the Isles (probably Dragons, Centaurs, Tuskarr and whatever is left as ally in one of the zones)

4th one is the Alliance/Horde Expedition IIRC

[Hitei]

How do you know reading/writing are the excepting in WoW’s universe?

Zabra could read Common and brought back books for others to read. There’s no reason to assume illiteracy.

If your marker for literacy is that one guy, whose entire big shtick is doing something atypical and bringing back previously not utilized knowledge, knows how to read for a reason not elaborated upon at all, you have a problem. Also very curious what your source is for Zabra bringing back books "for others to read". What he brought back was the knowledge he had learned from his own reading.

Are we still trying to justify that dumb racist book? Troll civilization has a longer history on Azeroth than the fucking Titans. Only an ignorant cunt would think they have anything to learn from the Blood Elves. And you aren't one, Hitei, so please stop acting like one.

H-haha, yeah, it's not like there's ever been a society spanning thousands of years that still had literacy problems, right? Just existing for a long time means that everyone knows how to read. I mean, it's not like humans on Earth have only been mostly literate for a few decades out of our 10,000+ years of civilization. And how could a younger society possibly ever have any technological or knowledge advantage over another society that's been around longer, that's never ever happened in the entire history of the world.

People should just respect their elders!

[Moojhito]

Gimme Tuskars plz, what lame excuse is this , too powerful

[Le Conceptuel]

Frankly, Zekhan's illiteracy is not so much of an issue to me next to the Goblin question. Although both Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian cultures actually had fairly advanced literacy systems and clerical castes, I suppose it would be an easy mistake to make in regards to the overtly-tribal appearance of the Darkspear. I think the influence of the Zandalari should make them at least slightly literate for ceremonial reasons or communication with them, but that's not that glaring of a problem and I could see the rationale between making a tribesman literate.

For me, the Goblin issue is more of a problem. I've never usually bought into the whole "decolonization" thing that people ascribe to fantasy races and the whole movement around that because I never looked at a non-human creature before and thought of a human ethnicity. Conversely, for the Goblins it seems more overt because they explicitly and physically resemble Jewish stereotypes and their tendencies run too similar for me.

I also would add an addendum that even outside of the well-poisoning problem and the racist undertones that have always been present with Goblins (and the only undertones that have actually ever bothered me), I think that the issue with Gazlowe betrays that Gallywix's removal was a last-second change because the letter was clearly meant to be written by him, which also provides some insight into the screwy development of Shadowlands. The Kalimdor book isn't just bad because of the questionable decisions in relationship to reality, but also because the Goblins in particular are portrayed awkwardly.

[Kiivar86]

I have to be honest, I have zero clue why some folks (here and elsewhere) have been jonesing so bad for Tuskarr. Different tastes, I guess, but they interest me not one bit.

Sole reason I'm even happy to see them in Dragonflight is because otter mount is #3 on my "do want" mount list (#1 being moths and #2 being snails, both satisfied by Shadowlands).

[Sondrelk]

Frankly, Zekhan's illiteracy is not so much of an issue to me next to the Goblin question. Although both Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian cultures actually had fairly advanced literacy systems and clerical castes, I suppose it would be an easy mistake to make in regards to the overtly-tribal appearance of the Darkspear. However, I think the influence of the Zandalari should make them at least slightly literate for ceremonial reasons or communication with them. However, the Goblin issue comes off as more poorly-handled. Even outside of the well-poisoning problem and the racist undertones that have always been present with Goblins (and the only undertones that have actually ever bothered me), I think that the issue with Gazlowe betrays that Gallywix's removal was a last-second change because the letter was clearly meant to be written by him, which also provides some insight into the screwy development of Shadowlands.

I don't think it was any singular problem so much as a cavalcade of small niggles that amount of this general sense that the Horde are a collection of racist caricatures.
Zekhan being illiterate and needing to be taught what erosion is by a more civilized person. The anti-semitic undertones of the Goblins. The Hordes seeming inability to comprehend why the Nelves don't trust them.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

What specifically? To me it seems that they are going to just carry over the ok stuff from SL (ZM style outdoor zone progression, vault being an upgrade over a single chest and such)

Those two things in particular are actually what scares me. Especially hard confirmation of the vault returning.

On the good side, they mentioned that they might keep an "RNG Stopgap" like the Creation Matrix, but tie it to professions.

But with the vault still sitting there I worry that endgame is going to devolve into the usual "do you weekly requirements to get the max possible vault slots and then stop."

[Hitei]

Those two things in particular are actually what scares me. Especially hard confirmation of the vault returning.

On the good side, they mentioned that they might keep an "RNG Stopgap" like the Creation Matrix, but tie it to professions.

But with the vault still sitting there I worry that endgame is going to devolve into the usual "do you weekly requirements to get the max possible vault slots and then stop."

ZM was great though.

[Le Conceptuel]

I don't think it was any singular problem so much as a cavalcade of small niggles that amount of this general sense that the Horde are a collection of racist caricatures.
Zekhan being illiterate and needing to be taught what erosion is by a more civilized person. The anti-semitic undertones of the Goblins. The Hordes seeming inability to comprehend why the Nelves don't trust them.

I think for me it's the Goblins. Zekhan may know about the basics of erosion from simple word of mouth and observation from other Darkspear, but for writers as generally uneducated as Blizzard's, I figure that it's not a mistake that's too hard to make—same thing with the literacy. It's not too difficult to forget the whole Mesoamerican/Mesopotamian undertones and a lot of people would naturally assume illiteracy because I doubt Blizzard's writers are educated enough to know this kind of history. Conversely, the Goblin thing runs too similar to actual, specific stereotypes for me. Well-poisoning is particularly bad, but I've always thought it's awkward that they gave the big-nosed, green-skinned greedy short people distinctly Jewish-sounding Brooklyn accents. They always struck me as a little iffy.

[Syegfryed]

I mean, we have here Tinker fixated people, Void fixated people, world revamp fixated people and many more. I think we can fit an anti-elf fixated guy. If this is your idea of posting for the next few months, waiting for some more Dracthyr development and immediately jumping in, fuming about their visage race pick and acting like it personally insults you, then so be it. Just one more attraction of MMO-C speculation thread.

As long i can keep people like you upset, for discussing something, i guess im doing my job.

God forbid that im discussing about the new race in the game forum.