Anyone else completely unprepared for Pre-Patch and DF in general?

[Osmeric]

I'd say it's more about the impact the past expansion has had on players as it relates to anticipation and desire of looking forward to the next content. To be fair, there's no marque feature that's coming next expansion that's huge besides the talent tree... and while that's a huge undertaking on the side of Blizz, what it means for players is not nearly as big depending upon your class/spec. The question then boils down to whether we're going to get more of the same or not, especially in light of how Blizz handled Shadowlands. I guarantee they'll try to make it a better experience than Shadowlands, but I can nowhere near guarantee it'll actually be a better experience (especially in the long term). While Blizz has been making strides in the right direction, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's "too little, too late" to have people come back in full and even prevent some players who are currently playing from buying/playing the expansion.

The pre-expansion events are kind of a pregame in terms of hyping up the next expansion. If you don't feel anything in terms of motivation or desire to do the pre-expac stuff when it could be beneficial or potentially fun, that may indicate you don't want to do the expansion. Typically such events are good for last second catch-up for alts or players that don't really play/progress much... honestly haven't looked at it, but historically such events can be hit or miss when it comes to accomplishing a fun event that's actually useful (Legion invasions were probably the last really fun pre-expansion event that was super useful). However, even if there's benefits to be had and still feel like a sense of apathy is overshadowing everything... probably a good sign to take a break from the game at the very least.

Again, this isn't about whether DF will be a good or bad expansion, it's more about what Shadowlands has done to the players in terms of keeping them wanting to play in the long term.

*edit* - Might as well comment on my circle of friends who range from RWF-level players to as casual as you can get when it comes to this topic. General consensus is that there's really not much motivation for the next expansion. Some are just going through the motions to do what they always do, but there's a noticeable lack of excitement for what's coming up. Most common cause seems to be they're exhausted and/or tired of the game, especially when they recall their experiences over the past expansion. No one's really talking about pre-expansion, some aren't even sure they'll play the next expansion. If I had to put my personal perspective on things based upon their reactions over the past couple years, they're moving from being upset about aspects of the game to just being apathetic. If this is more common than not with other players, it won't matter how good DF is as apathetic and/or tired players aren't going to play.

Speaking from my own experience, tired means your connection to the game is frayed. This is perilous, because if the game then upsets you, there's very little barrier preventing you from just leaving. If you're hanging on by a thread, that thread is easily snapped. And if you leave in an upset state, that upset remains, and keeps you away. I personally never seriously considered getting DF, and nothing they showed seemed anywhere close to mending my negative opinion of the game and its developers. If anything, it upset me more, as they weren't doing the things that would demonstrate contrition about what they had done.

[Thunderball]

There's nothing to prepare for. You will have 3 weeks of absolutely nothing happening to figure out your addons and new talents. Then you will have 2 weeks to figure out Evoker if that's interesting for you.

[Dristereau]

With all the QoL features added to Covenants why they kept the soul thing a quest forcing you to go back and forth in the maw instead of just letting you freely grind them out is beyond me.

Yeah it never changed, also same with the Box of Many Things not being account wide for some reason, which is why I now live in Torghast. One of my Guildies said you could buy it from a Vendor in Zereth Mortis and I got very excited, then saw they meant Soul Ash/Cinders pouch

[Alroxas]

Season 4 was dead for most players anyways, Season 3 and raiding Sepulcher was more enjoyable and the tier felt like it was cut short with the need to squeeze Season 4 in and get DF out by Christmas.

Season 3 cut short? It certainly didn't feel like it. I'd have to go crunch numbers but I think S3 was on par with S1 and S2.

But 2-3k weekly anima isn't much when you add it all up. You have Weapon Ensembles costing 25k, Armors sets (4 for Night Fae) each costing 12.5k, Mounts, a full set of Armor and Weapons for each Covenant which are 2-4k Anima per piece. Add in the fact that you need to upgrade the Sanctums to be able to buy/unlock some of these things mean you're looking at around 73.5k Anima to upgrade each Sanctum, along with the appropriate amount of souls (=lots). If you want everything you're looking at a few hundred thousand/possibly over a million Anima.

That's incredibly odd because I have at least 3 toons over 60k anima just sitting around AFTER fully unlocking all the sanctum buildings. And I think some of the armor sets have a shared unlock as long as another toon of the same armor type has gotten it. Additionally, because you can transfer anima around at zero cost (Traveler's Anima Cache costs 1k anima and gives 1k anima), I found it helpful to transfer anima where it's needed.

The only limiting issue I've found is soul farming. Even though it's a repeatable quest, you have to go back to the sanctum to turn in and re-accept the quest.

Now if there was just a way to offload anima to another player...

[Dristereau]

Season 3 cut short? It certainly didn't feel like it. I'd have to go crunch numbers but I think S3 was on par with S1 and S2.

From what I remember Season 3 lasted around 6/7 months and Guilds that usually got CE comfortably were on the verge of missing out and nearly got Hall of Fame on Alliance side. Sanctum was out for almost 8 months, Sepulcher barely got 5 months.

That's incredibly odd because I have at least 3 toons over 60k anima just sitting around AFTER fully unlocking all the sanctum buildings. And I think some of the armor sets have a shared unlock as long as another toon of the same armor type has gotten it. Additionally, because you can transfer anima around at zero cost (Traveler's Anima Cache costs 1k anima and gives 1k anima), I found it helpful to transfer anima where it's needed.

The only limiting issue I've found is soul farming. Even though it's a repeatable quest, you have to go back to the sanctum to turn in and re-accept the quest.

Now if there was just a way to offload anima to another player...

There are 64 Armor sets from Sanctums at the start (4 Armor Types each with 4 colour variations per Covenant). At least 16 of these sets (the one called Renown) requires you to purchase each Armor piece individually for 2-4k Anima each. There's also each weapon plus the Campaign weapons which cost similar amounts. I know there's other Armor sets (Court of Night, Ember Court, Path of Ascension) that also require you to buy the pieces/ensembles for Anima. I've already done all the Korthia sets besides missing one piece that requires it to come from a World Quest (thank god for Unity Discord) but each of them had a 10k Anima set plus varied mounts/toys etc.

If you want to get everything from Convenants it's pretty mad and very grindy. Souls have been a fun grind recently. Done a shed ton of torghasts on a variety of Alts. If they made those possible to sent to Alts would be nice, not enjoyed Spriest in Torghast.

[hulkgor]

What a silly notion, to be "unprepared" for a prepatch of, and a new expansion.

I guess you should get a move on and "prepare" yourself then! Run some laps, for starters!

[loras]

What a silly notion, to be "unprepared" for a prepatch of, and a new expansion.

I guess you should get a move on and "prepare" yourself then! Run some laps, for starters!

Well, Illidan did warn us a while ago.
"You are NOT prepared!"

[pahbi]

I'm definitely unprepared.

I'm not subbed, haven't bought the expansion, and only just barely kept up with dragonflight development in general, I unsubbed about halfway through shadowlands because it wasn't the least bit fun.

All in all everything I've seen is just kinda meh, but I'll probably give dragonflight a chance anyways.

The big decision is what class to play... I don't have much time available and I don't want to waste time on a class that isn't fun. Its kind of a tossup between arms warrior, elemental or enhancement shaman or afflic / demo warlock.

[Gaebryel Quintyne]

Are people who are playing through the quests for the 1st time like covenant campaigns, korthia and zereth mortis campaigns, are you guys experiencing any bugs while doing them? There's a bug that's been there for more than 2 months now I think, where NPC dialogue doesn't play out properly either audibly or written. Like the NPCs will just be making motions with their hands or whatever but nothing shows in chat or on-screen what they are saying. I have been experiencing it for a while now and it just basically halted me from doing any more quests. I am waiting until it's fixed but supposedly, it's fixed on the PTR so hopefully, by Tuesday, it should be fixed...

Here is the thread on this bug on the official WoW forums:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...alogue/1315876

[InsightTimer37]

I think Blizzard themselves are quite unprepared for the pre-patch and the new expansion as a whole. Will be interesting to see if things get released on schedule.

[Nyel]

I think most players will be completely overwhelmed by the new talent system. In fact, without guides, you're pretty much lost. Which is not a good thing.

[Alroxas]

I think most players will be completely overwhelmed by the new talent system. In fact, without guides, you're pretty much lost. Which is not a good thing.

Eh... It's a mixed bag. On one hand, the variety of choice means that there are going to be a lot of builds out there. Which one is mathematically best will be hard to determine considering that you don't get all the points filled until lv 70.

Additionally, given the interchangeability and ease of sharing builds, I don't think it'll be that much different than the previous talent tree revamp.

Moreover, there's a "default" or starter template that every spec gets as default. The beta showed how it worked pretty well and unless players want to dive into the nuances, it should be fine for most casual players.

[Nyel]

Eh... It's a mixed bag. On one hand, the variety of choice means that there are going to be a lot of builds out there. Which one is mathematically best will be hard to determine considering that you don't get all the points filled until lv 70.

Additionally, given the interchangeability and ease of sharing builds, I don't think it'll be that much different than the previous talent tree revamp.

Moreover, there's a "default" or starter template that every spec gets as default. The beta showed how it worked pretty well and unless players want to dive into the nuances, it should be fine for most casual players.

I don't think it's about the amount of builds, it's mostly about the interactions between talents that make it so hard. So yes, while there are tons of builds, there are so many passive effects you can't keep an eye on when you're completely new to this system. This breeds diversity, but first and foremost it will breed lots of confusion.

Not even guidewriters to this day have made up their minds about builds, because the possibilies and co-dependencies are endless. Sure, there's a starter build (which is good for newcomers and players not aware of all the changes), but I still find it highly difficult even for skilled players to come to a fruitful conclusion. Nuances in this case don't mean some few % anymore like previously, missing this or that talent can be totally devastating for your build / performance.

They could have done a way better job highlighting all the interactions, either by having a list of all talents picked on the side (so you know what you've taken without always scrolling over it) or just highlighting which talents are affecting which skills. Right now the talent system is a huge chaotic mess.

[Draknalor186]

Am I the only one?

I am playing wotlk classic.

So, no you are not alone

[ClownPrincess]

I think most players will be completely overwhelmed by the new talent system. In fact, without guides, you're pretty much lost. Which is not a good thing.

It felt a bit overwhelming at first but as you play with it you start knowing which talents you can't really skip to get where you want and to figure out which options you like best for those where you actually have to make choices

The UX is not super good though, you can't easily do tweaks like moving one talent point from one place to another (even if both configurations are valid).

It would be easier if the UI wouln't reset talents as soon their prerequisites are unfulfilled so making this kind of small adjustment would be easier. They could instead just disable the button to apply the tree and highlight talents with missing prerequisites with a flashing red border, until you fix it.

There's gonna be a cottage industry of add-ons to make the talent UI not suck.

[Nyel]

It felt a bit overwhelming at first but as you play with it you start knowing which talents you can't really skip to get where you want and to figure out which options you like best for those where you actually have to make choices

The UX is not super good though, you can't easily do tweaks like moving one talent point from one place to another (even if both configurations are valid).

It would be easier if the UI wouln't reset talents as soon their prerequisites are unfulfilled so making this kind of small adjustment would be easier. They could instead just disable the button to apply the tree and highlight talents with missing prerequisites with a flashing red border, until you fix it.

There's gonna be a cottage industry of add-ons to make the talent UI not suck.

Yeah, I think the biggest problem is the UI and not the system itself. There should always be an overview of what talents you picked with their description on the side. Talents affecting skills / other talents should be marked as such. The UI is just outright terrible because you easily lose track of talents you already picked or what they do. I'm sure there will be tons of addons, but Blizzard could have done a way better job to make it easier for the casual playerbase to see what's going on.

[Strawberry]

I'm not even getting the expansion. I'm tired of Blizzards treatment of WoW.
It's getting too PC and woke for my taste, and also dragons... yeah, very original. However I wouldn't have an issue if they were done in Guild Wars 2 style. Huge, menacing, evil. In WoW, they are fucking pussies and look like ones, all with the similar look and same animation.

[tomten]

Everything resets in DF, as it did in pretty much every other expansion, what's there to prepare for?

A month of prepatch with completely new classes and talent systems??

[Xerberous]

Am I the only one?

<- Account is on ice since more than a year so I cannot be more unprepared.

[marulol]

Nah won't be playing. Wrath shill.