World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Releases This Year - Pre-Orders Now Available

[Yarathir]

Holy crap those wings are terrible. Mount looks nice though.

Those wings are absolutely laughable.

[AtomR]

They scrapped at least one patch for SL so it's likelly they've been working on this a lot longer than we thought.
Maybe they will just be revamping the talent trees, add "how to train your dragon" features and just develop new story+zones+raids+dungeons and it's all done.

[thesimpsonsman]

"*World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight will be available on or before December 31, 2022."

Did not expect that at all..... There is no way we are gonna see it this year, and if so it will be so buggy and rushed. I was expecting Spring and Summer of 2023.

Plus, aren't they doing that filler crap with redoing raids and what not for the next season. Did they honestly expect that to only last a month or two?

I'll still buy it after saying all of that lol but still, we dont need another shadowlands.

[RobertMugabe]

Wait what, it'll release THIS year?

[Zephre]

It's basically just a large patch, no shit it's coming out this year.

[schwarzkopf]

People either whinge because it is too soon, or whinge because it is taking too long.

No wonder Blizz stopped listening to players.

[micwini]

I think they have one big advantage for Dragonflight, no complex intertwined borrowed powers (artefact, legos, covenants etc etc) to attempt to implement.

For the most part - they are just implementing a system which is currently working in classic - classic talents, and new content.

In theory it should be the least complicated expansion in years.

True but there is still quite a lot that needs testing, feedback and iteration:
- The 'new' talents. A lot of stuff is now in the talents that needs to be baseline, just for a start
- Just the general questing experience like they always do
- The dragonriding system
- Endgame world content
- New dungeons
- New raid
- Professions. Lots of testing, feedback, iteration to be done on this.

But yeah, apart from that, not much else. Im feeling a WoD 2.0 here.

- - - Updated - - -

People either whinge because it is too soon, or whinge because it is taking too long.

No wonder Blizz stopped listening to players.

The issue is that they haven't started testing. The only thing we've seen is some zone previews and the first iteration of talent trees for only 2 classes. It is just fear that it might be rushed/not tested enough. No one would have had this sentiment, had they started alpha the week after the announcement, which could have been done if the expansion is so far along that it can be released this year.

[mmocfd1b0ab5a3]

Please explain how is it rushed? Am I missing something because just looking at Legion:

The release date announcement for Legion was on April 18th 2016, beta was on May 15th 2016 and release date was August 30th 2016. Thats about 4 months between date announcement and release date and previous expac was less than 2 years.

Dragonflight date announced June 21th 2022 and release is on or before December 31th 2022. Thats up to 6 months between date announcement and release date and previous expac lasted up to 2 years 1 month.

Thats just one example.

[Cayde69]

Honestly, probably another expansion I don’t buy. Dracthyr sounded cool, solo q arena sounds cool, but honestly knowing blizzard and them releasing it within the next 6 months with no beta in sight I’m willing to guess it’s going to be rushed and the beta is goin to be a fairly good reflection of the whole game. Let’s see how bad it really is.

[schwarzkopf]

True but there is still quite a lot that needs testing, feedback and iteration:

Correct, but not a lot of new weird programming needs to be done. Art assets, questlines, dungeons, raids - all stuff they've been doing for 18 years.

The ONLY new mechanic in the game will be the dragon flying stuff, everything else is stuff they are experienced at.

[schwarzkopf]

The issue is that they haven't started testing.

Of course they have started testing, ages ago...

[Mhyroth]

People either whinge because it is too soon, or whinge because it is taking too long.

No wonder Blizz stopped listening to players.

Haven't seen anyone complain that an Expansion release is taking too long. People rather have a finished product and not rushed as we've been used to for the past 2 Expansions.

[kamuimac]

so ... it seems they are giving up on S4 then ? or they already know it will completly utterly fail ?

shame - it will be another rushed failed expansion . there is no way in hell possible to make expansion goodif its end of june and there is no open beta out.

[shade3891]

[Zarathos]

nah, i mean the thing in shadowlands is that we had "covenants", tor-mess and a lot of things...Here we are back to basics so its not rushed at all and they said that the expac was almost ready. Remember not borrowed power so not soulbinds and stuff...if u think about it they need to test talent trees, quest, maps, raid, dungeons, dracthyr and not much more...

[MrLachyG]

I think they have one big advantage for Dragonflight, no complex intertwined borrowed powers (artefact, legos, covenants etc etc) to attempt to implement.

For the most part - they are just implementing a system which is currently working in classic - classic talents, and new content.

In theory it should be the least complicated expansion in years.

Yeah this is why I actually think it could release this year. If it’s just the standard quests, dungeons, raids etc then that doesn’t take too much testing, Blizz are pretty proficient at those. Renown is coming back, that system has already been tested in SL so the only thing that needs targeted thorough testing is DR

[AtomR]

Just because you don't know they haven' started testing doesn't mean they haven't started testing. I bet beta invites will be out soon.

[druvirus]

Do not pre order this, do not even buy this at launch. Blizzard does not deserve your money.

Also this is rushed big time because they have lost a leg with everything they put out the last few years being dog crap. Only reason they are standing on 1 leg is cuz of microtransactions.

Get your popcorn ready cuz when this shit show is released its gonna be amazing to watch.

Already preordered the top tier version. Womp womp.

[micwini]

Please explain how is it rushed? Am I missing something because just looking at Legion:

They announced Legion on April 18th 2016, beta was on May 15th 2016 and release date was August 30th 2016. Thats about 4 months between date announcement and release date and previous expac was less than 2 years.

Dragonflight date announced June 21th 2022 and release is on or before December 31th 2022. Thats up to 6 months between date announcement and release date and previous expac lasted up to 2 years 1 month.

Thats just one example.

We had 14 months of Siege of Orgrimmar and we got WoD. They scrapped half of WoD afterwards to focus on Legion. They have scrapped some stuff from SL, but not as much as WoD and DF is far from as ambitious as Legion was.

[Flower Milk]

It really really doesn't.

What gameplay do you want to see? It's literally the exact same game we've been playing for 18 years. I can assure you, it will look exactly the same. If you expect it to look like something different you're going to be incredibly disappointed.

Um, did you just forget about them reworking the entire talent system or ...? Rushing that out without extensive testing is going to not be great for a core system of the game.