IIRC, they said they were far along into development, alpha could be rich
I recall having a Continent Map for almost, if not every, prior expansion? Not knowing what the Dragon Isles look like on a Map drives me nuts!
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I'm not denying that Alpha/Dragonflight development "could" be VERY far along. However, even then, I imagine Blizzard would want to do a very specific/targeted test (initially) with the first LIVE build. For example, if they gave us 2 classes to test, and 1 leveling zone, that isn't to say they are WAY behind on everything else, they may just want to do a specific test ONLY on those 2 classes and 1 leveling zone.
I have my doubts that could ever be balanced in a meaningful way.
Seems to ripe for abuse, for one. Then you have the issue of having no accountability. What do you do when some DPS have tagged the same mob but can't meet the DPS threshold? You can't see who it is and you can't kick them, so its kind of inviting an environment of rage like you see with Shifting Stargorger in ZM.
Will there be a build tonight, and the alpha invites tomorrow?
And people fall for it every single time.
Not having all classes ready four months before launch feels pretty far behind though. This is one of the most important things to get it done right and at the start of the alpha they're still contemplating about talent trees without even having a first round of them ready? Uhm.
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Nobody knows, it's all guessing.
MAGA - Make Alliance Great Again
I was in the very first alpha wave for Shadowlands, it was indeed far into dev
Everything I want to know about is Dracthyr/Evoker related.
Their talent trees.
How customizable the Dracthyr ‘barber shop armor’ is, since (from last we heard) they cannot wear/transmog a lot of normal armor.
If Dracthyr can be their own mount outside of the Dragon Isles. (Outside of the “DH+ movement they mentioned)
Unpopular opinion (maybe), but I am ALWAYS excited for a new expansion (doesn't matter if the previous expansion was good or not). IMO, nothing beats that excitement of the Announcement, Alpha, Beta, Pre-Patch, and official launch cycle. As others have said before, a new expansion will "usually" be exciting and fun (no matter what) for at-least that first month or so.
Was excited for MoP because monks could roll... excited for WoD for new character models, excited for Legion because of pretty much everything, excited for BFA because of allied races and the zones, excited for Shadowlands because of the customization and now excited for DF because of new talents, dragonriding and dragon isles.
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Also the new ui.. much needed overhaul, bigger HD map )