How does Dragonflight look so far, Good, bad, same as usual?

[Revamp Man]

Okay, that's all good. What about the "covenant" rep? Is it gated? I know I'm a bit jaded about gating, but I dislike it very much, because it always leads to waiting days for resets.

define gated
you get rep from dailies and quests along with some of the random events or rares so technically yes it is gated like the previous expansions reps are

[Nymrohd]

Okay, that's all good. What about the "covenant" rep? Is it gated? I know I'm a bit jaded about gating, but I dislike it very much, because it always leads to waiting days for resets.

Theoretically you will run out of events, sidequests, world quests and repeatable quests eventually. I don't think it will happen anywhere near as fast as in the past though unless you focus on just one rep to the exclusion of others.

But you want some time to also grind you professions or do dungeons and pvp? Just saying, the expansion has a lot of content.

Of course if they fuck up the release schedule then after several months people will start running out. It's a good start but at the end of the day what will matter is the patch release pace.

[lordjust]

A crazy amount of sidequests, events popping all over the map, rep levels then opening even further quests. I honestly don't see how you can clear your map even if you literally do nothing but play the game 16 hours a day.

Not everthing we see in beta will be the same. We know that invasion won't be there for a long time since they're supposed to be the 10.0 catch up mechanic for the raids. Probably not all hunts will be active at the same time but only 1 every 3 days like in a previous build. At the moment almost everything is there at the same time in beta, so everything can be tested but will with a high chance be reduced on live like in previous builds.

Sidequest are a one time thing and the rest is more in line with what we have in shadowlands. Maybe 20 world quests per day, 1 event for each faction twice a week. Lots to do in the first few weeks, after that maybe 1-2h per day if you want to do everything with some things taking less with more upgrades you unlock like great hunts.


As for dragonflight as a whole. It's fine. Talent trees are good, you win some, you loose some and 90% of talent choices are set with maybe 7-10 points that are flexible. Dragonriding is fun, if you go downhill and unlocked some or all upgrades. Looking for the dragon glyphs and some treasures is fun at the moment because you have to explore the whole world but most people will probably end up getting handynotes or something similar that tells you where to go and what to do.

The rest is more or less the same as before. Crafting isn't as exciting. You have different quality reagents, a talent tree and some stats to increase the chance to use less material or get higher ilvl. In the end you level your profession just like before and in the end you get to the highest level. We know that if you want mythic quality gear, you need to do content that is on par with mythic raids because the high end bop crafting mats can't be provided by other people so it isn't the gear progression people made it out to be.

Other end-game content. Open world is as said above more or less the same as before with additional events and invasion down the line. New dungeons look fine but are in line with shadowlands dungeons where you do giga pulls and aoe everything. Clearly made with m+ in mind. New raid looks good with more mechanics on earlier bosses. Very dependend on tuning. If it's slighty off the bosses will be a pushover or very hard. First boss you have to manage the debuffs/pools correctly, do soaks and focus damage in the intermission. Lots of movement for ranged player, lots of opportunities for melee to get fucked and loose lots of damage.

[Caiphon]

Care to elaborate? Like, why is it "fine", and is worth playing? I mean I just don't buy the "you'll be back", and "everyone here gets it" argument, wow has been bleeding subs for a while now. As consumers we are allowed, and it's healthy to look at what we pay for, and ask if it's worth it. The thread is about if the game looks good.

Removal of borrowed power alone makes it worth playing in my book. Levels, gear and enchants are enough in terms of progress, I don't want to toil for days doing world quests, grinding renown and fishing for legendaries/conduits through RNG to be eligible for endgame content. Having a dozen ways to make your character stronger just means you need to work on all dozen to be anywhere near competitive, so glad to have that burden lifted.

Talent trees also look promising, especially for PvP as we can now access much more utility by dropping a bit of dps. No longer are we forced to give up two out of three CC/defensive options because the other one is slightly better. That they actually (though indirectly) nerfed the human and orc racials that have been absolutely dominating for the last 3 expansions is also a big plus, though it would have been great if they removed racials from ranked play altogether.

Evoker needs a bit of work, especially in the survival department, but it is still a brand new class nonetheless and is much appreciated. I was pretty disappointed that they broke the new class every other expansion pattern in SL (though it may have been for the best - would hate to play anything based on Bald Man).

[Nymrohd]

Not everthing we see in beta will be the same. We know that invasion won't be there for a long time since they're supposed to be the 10.0 catch up mechanic for the raids. Probably not all hunts will be active at the same time but only 1 every 3 days like in a previous build. At the moment almost everything is there at the same time in beta, so everything can be tested but will with a high chance be reduced on live like in previous builds.

Sidequest are a one time thing and the rest is more in line with what we have in shadowlands. Maybe 20 world quests per day, 1 event for each faction twice a week. Lots to do in the first few weeks, after that maybe 1-2h per day if you want to do everything with some things taking less with more upgrades you unlock like great hunts.

Invasions are NOT up at this point in time. Only one hunt is up at a time. But you also have other events beyond the hunt and more events open as you increase your renown. And some of the events and quest hubs take time to clear.

[Raisei]

Yeah we talk about all kinds of stuff but fundamentally the most important thing by far is patch cadence imo. I suspect the reality is that mediocre content delivered more quickly is probably a better business model than excellent content delivered slowly even though we don't want to admit it. It's true of basically everything from books to television etc. This is the age of content at any cost

Personally I would say that Blizzard should have the resources to make good content in a relatively short time.

SLs suffered from the Virus situation, but most other companies managed to find arrangements that prevented such a dip in quality as we have seen here. I can't help but blame missmanagment. Or maybe the law suit was internally a much bigger thing then we were told, and the WoW team is muuuuch smaller now, because many of the "unnamed" Devs have left or been fired.

If the team is the at the same size now then I see no excuse for mediocre content. They had so much additional time through the huge content gaps and the canceling of the .3 patch, that DF should be an excellent expansion, but atm I am not seeing it.

Just as I am not seeing them hold to their promise of finally "Listening" to feedback. It's still ignored left and right. Good ideas are shut down with flimsy excuses and some classes are again left in the dirt to be fixed in .1 or .2. It is all as it has been before BFA and before SLs.

It all makes one wonder what they actually did with the extra time and also if the content cadence of SLs will now be the standard.

[Schizoide]

Coming in on page 17 so I'm sure this has been covered already, but the base "WoW" game in Dragonflight seems better in some ways and worse in others. The new talent trees give many specs a LOT more buttons to press, which I really don't like, but they got rid of mission tables and borrowed power, which I love. Two steps forward, one back, as always.

Outside of the core WoW experience, beta testers are extremely positive about the new dragon flying. It sounds like a lot of fun.

[potis]

I still wonder, 15 pages after, what are all these self-proclaimed casuals, are gonna be doing on the most empty raid logging expansion they have announced the last 12 years.

Perfect for me and my alts, but i really wonder how many pointless cosmetic craps you guys can farm before you cry about lack of content.

[r4vio928]

Outside of the core WoW experience, beta testers are extremely positive about the new dragon flying. It sounds like a lot of fun.

You can't really trust them. Most are influencers, and those up and coming just want to emulate influencers to eventually make money. Just watch an influencer for a 6-month period. I bet they go from wow is horrendous to wow is amazing, and back and forth. "Blizz sucks they do this : l, next vid, Blizz is amazing they fixed this :O" It's all just consumer manipulation.

[Schizoide]

In the alpha yes for sure, but now there are tons of actual players in beta. I don't know if I'll love it myself, but at this point I'm pretty sure it won't give me gonorrhea.

[Nightshade711]

Coming in on page 17 so I'm sure this has been covered already, but the base "WoW" game in Dragonflight seems better in some ways and worse in others. The new talent trees give many specs a LOT more buttons to press, which I really don't like, but they got rid of mission tables and borrowed power, which I love. Two steps forward, one back, as always.

Outside of the core WoW experience, beta testers are extremely positive about the new dragon flying. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Beta testers also said Torghast was very fun.

[heartless8604]

I'll be honest, both BFA and Shadowlands failed to give me a reason to actually play it at launch. Nothing about them was exciting. Guess my interest in the game was dead who knows. But Dragonflight follows the current course in just not being of any interest. It doesn't look bad, it just doesn't look like anything I care about. I've stopped caring about the shitshow that is the storyline so who cares about that now.

[ryanmahaffe]

Beta testers also said Torghast was very fun.

Yeah before they neutered the fun version

[FelPlague]

Coming in on page 17 so I'm sure this has been covered already, but the base "WoW" game in Dragonflight seems better in some ways and worse in others. The new talent trees give many specs a LOT more buttons to press, which I really don't like, but they got rid of mission tables and borrowed power, which I love. Two steps forward, one back, as always.

Outside of the core WoW experience, beta testers are extremely positive about the new dragon flying. It sounds like a lot of fun.

"a lot more buttons to press"
I don't agree, depending on what build you go it either gives more or less, but like this is the exact same way it is now, depending on what build you go you either have more or less buttons.

- - - Updated - - -

Beta testers also said Torghast was very fun.

Thing is it was, but it being required made it boring, and also they neutered it.

[r4vio928]

Thing is it was, but it being required made it boring, and also they neutered it.

That's what happens with almost everything in the game, because they say do this 100 times and you get a piece of equipment. When the gameplay should be fun and speak for itself. The only thing interesting to me is dragonriding, and a bit of the lore, the new race looks very wierd, and when is the last time they did any animation work. If a new race is coming out in 2022 and still uses the same skelaton and animation from races made a decade ago, what exactly are we doing here lol?

I don't mean to sound harsh or that it's not going to be entertaining for some, but Shadowlands and a few other expansion have burned me with how they manage the game, and disrespect our commitment and time. It just looks more of the same.

[FelPlague]

That's what happens with almost everything in the game, because they say do this 100 times and you get a piece of equipment. When the gameplay should be fun and speak for itself. The only thing interesting to me is dragonriding, and a bit of the lore, the new race looks very wierd, and when is the last time they did any animation work. If a new race is coming out in 2022 and still uses the same skelaton and animation from races made a decade ago, what exactly are we doing here lol?

I don't mean to sound harsh or that it's not going to be entertaining for some, but Shadowlands and a few other expansion have burned me with how they manage the game, and disrespect our commitment and time. It just looks more of the same.

???? What are you talking about?
There is tons of new animations in dragonflight, including the new races new skeleton and animations...
and dragon flying animations are all new, including a ton of other new animations seen all over.

[r4vio928]

???? What are you talking about?
There is tons of new animations in dragonflight, including the new races new skeleton and animations...
and dragon flying animations are all new, including a ton of other new animations seen all over.

It's re-used. It's not a new skelaton. I believe it's from the sucubus pet for warlocks, and another enemy as well. It was documented on this site around the Dragonflight reveal trailer. The new dragons are built upon the older dragon models with more polygons, hence why they look very similar. I'll give you the dragons, but you said TONS. Care to explain your definition of tons,? and also provide some evidence that the game has tons of new animations that aren't re-used skelatons and animations from previous enemies?

[Nyel]

I'll be honest, both BFA and Shadowlands failed to give me a reason to actually play it at launch. Nothing about them was exciting. Guess my interest in the game was dead who knows. But Dragonflight follows the current course in just not being of any interest. It doesn't look bad, it just doesn't look like anything I care about. I've stopped caring about the shitshow that is the storyline so who cares about that now.

Dragonflight is just the xth iteration of Legion content modes with a lack of meaningful new features. It's basically Legion / BfA / Shadowlands with less diversity when it comes to content. The only plus is supposed build diversity due to the talent system, but that's it. Players will get bored quicker in Dragonflight than ever before by the lack of things to do (sorry, open world questing and events are not covering the loss of everything else).

[FelPlague]

It's re-used. It's not a new skelaton. I believe it's from the sucubus pet for warlocks, and another enemy as well. It was documented on this site around the Dragonflight reveal trailer. The new dragons are built upon the older dragon models with more polygons, hence why they look very similar. I'll give you the dragons, but you said TONS. Care to explain your definition of tons,? and also provide some evidence that the game has tons of new animations that aren't re-used skelatons and animations from previous enemies?

"Dracthyr are the succubus skeleton"
you fucking kidding me?


Do you mean the incubus? Cause yes the base skeleton is based on that, but it is a HEAVILY altered version of it, especially with all the new animations that the incubus model did not have, like flying around, dragons breath, tail swipe, wing buffet, and more.
just like how the infernal mounts are heavily altered versions of the gronn.

Yes the dragon riding models are based on their old versions with much more poly, but they are new models, and full of new animations, the flap animations, the diving animations, the swirling, soaring, and surging, all of them are new animations, dragons did not have anything but a flying, hovering, and turning animation for flying, now they have FAR more. dragons overall have a TON of new animations

Highlands drake= advflydown, advflydownend, advsflydownstart, advflyflap, advflyforward, advflyforwardglide, advflyleft, advflyright, advflyroll, advflyrollend, advflyrollleft, advflyup, attackunarmed, channelcastdirected, channelcastomni, customspell01, customspell02, customspell03, doublejump, doublejumpstart, dragonspitfly, readyunarmed

that is just 2 models, there is 7 others like this, and im sure i missed some, whelps got a ton of new animations, all of the dragon models, a ton of the reused skeletons also got new animations.


New animations on this, yes it is the water strider skeleton, but this can fly, which the water strider cannot, giving a new set of animations.

Brand new model, all brand new animations.



like bro if you think this expansion does not have new animations, you are hilariously off speaking there is atleast 200.


For one final example, here is the animation list for the protodrake CURRENTLY to the NEW one.

(Notice the difference in the animations listed right away, as well as the size difference on the scroll bar.)
Drake versus new drake

Wyvern versus new wyvern (New wyvern is actually heavily altered to move far differntly, and have a much more wide stance)

Pterodactyle versus new one

The 5th dragon riding mount is just like tis but the model is only datamined so not properly set up.

while i could go and count literally every single new one.... I am not doing that, cause you are not exactly worth the time.

[shanthi]

The new talent trees give many specs a LOT more buttons to press, which I really don't like

Whether you get a lot more buttons to press depends on your choices. There are lots of passive options to select. You even have to opt in to a lot of buttons the class used to have baseline--don't want an interrupt? Don't need to have one (which is actually nice if you're making a raid build and the fights you're progressing on don't have interrupts). Just playing around with the trees, I've noticed you can make very low-button builds (which I find boring) or ones with a lot of buttons. Granted, not everything will be "optimal," but I doubt the top rotations, DPS-wise, will generally require all the active choices since GCDs are a limited resource.