No Flying in 8.0 Confirmed

[Spiral Mage]

So, basically this thread is all about something we've known forever?
They announced this plan a long time ago, it isn't even news.

Also, "good to see they haven't caved to a minority".
The minority was the BLIZ dev team.
Sure, they found some approval in the playerbase to then try and use to justify themselves.
But in the end, it was a decision made by a minority: them.
And even internally, a good portion of the staff was against it, yet it still happened.
So yep, they caved to a minority alright, heh.

[Deleted]

But is your opinion. For me is super fun and super special (also I've spend real money in flying mounts ...) and I love it. I love how huuuuuuge the world feels, I love flying on Pandaria and seeing the great wall, I love flying in Northend and seeing Icecrown.

Flying is a mechanic that can be used to create incredibly fun and nice worlds and environment but the problem is that it requires more time than not using it, so they just hide it behind an achievement (we will be able to fly in BfA just not at launch 100% sure) to make the world artificially bigger and let you fly over it when you already were forced to visit every place.

In my opinion, the best implementation was Pandaria, just available at max level by buying it to make your QoL better or TBC where the world was designed with flying in mind.

True enough, 100% opinion. And don't get me wrong, I'm very glad flying exists. And the way they handled flying in wod and legion is fine for my liking.

But for me it's simply the most efficient way to move about, not special. If you want to use flying as a mechnic to make the world more fun, exiting, etc. you will need to change how flying works. Atm there is not alot that makes flying exiting. it's just movement around the x,y,z axis. that's it. Atleast with ground mounts you have to take into account the terrain, not much but it's something. Wouldn't flying that epic dragon be way more fun if it actually felt like it was lifting up and making an effort to move through the air? Even a simple 'slow' start would go along way towards making flying feel more epic.

[Wallack]

True enough, 100% opinion. And don't get me wrong, I'm very glad flying exists. And the way they handled flying in wod and legion is fine for my liking.

But for me it's simply the most efficient way to move about, not special. If you want to use flying as a mechnic to make the world more fun, exiting, etc. you will need to change how flying works. Atm there is not alot that makes flying exiting. it's just movement around the x,y,z axis. that's it. Atleast with ground mounts you have to take into account the terrain, not much but it's something. Wouldn't flying that epic dragon be way more fun if it actually felt like it was lifting up and making an effort to move through the air? Even a simple 'slow' start would go along way towards making flying feel more epic.

Oh, I know what you mean, and would be great. Also some zones only accessible flying to justify it a bit more and not just a "fast travel" mechanic but something that is needed to play.

In WoD I loved the perk of riding the goat and fighting over it, made everything different, faster and funnier, some areas where you can combat on a mount would be great.

What about an area where you could fight while flying? I don't know, just spitting things out of my head but I think they have a lot of potential with a mechanic that they barely use.

[Maudib]

Great and welcome news. Ian confirmed during a Blizzcon interview that flying will not be available in Battle for Azeroth at launch. Furthermore, Blizzard will continue with this approach for the foreseeable future in subsequent expansions.

If Battle for Legions content is as strong as Legions (or better) - we can hopefully get away with having no flying for even longer this time round.

You're in luck... BfA is Legion 2.0, so you should have a blast! As for me... I won't be buying/playing BfA, so no-flight doesn't affect me at all. I think Blizzard is going to be surprised at how many people are going to skip the launch or the entire expansion... not just because of flight, but certainly a major contributor.

I'll be playing Classic... and missing flight... but when BC is released... YUM! Back to how flying SHOULD have been handled all through the expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

In the end... just realize that alienating a large part of your playerbase will only hasten it's end of life.

[AnonEntity]

Excellent news.

To me - I think flying should be reserved for old content and be automatically given to a character on getting to the next range of content (e.g. WoD flying is given to you when you hit 110 etc).

Interesting idea. I would say allow flying once the next expansion releases. I think you meant WoD flying would be given at level 100/101 rather than 110 though.

[SirCowdog]

But for me it's simply the most efficient way to move about, not special. If you want to use flying as a mechnic to make the world more fun, exiting, etc. you will need to change how flying works. Atm there is not alot that makes flying exiting. it's just movement around the x,y,z axis. that's it. Atleast with ground mounts you have to take into account the terrain, not much but it's something. Wouldn't flying that epic dragon be way more fun if it actually felt like it was lifting up and making an effort to move through the air? Even a simple 'slow' start would go along way towards making flying feel more epic.

The bolded part is the biggest problem I have with flying right now, more so even than the stupid time-delay or pathfinder grind. The simple fact that even once you get flying, there's virtually nothing to use it on besides speeding up the consumption of content which you've already been through.

Getting flight should unlock an entirely new layer of the game. It should be giving you access to areas that you previously couldn't reach, or enabling certain types of encounters and daily quests which weren't possible from the ground.

But instead Blizzard just takes it away from players, makes them wait 8 months, then slaps it back into the ground-based design without thought, and calls it good. What a waste of opportunity and potential.

[Saverem]

Great and welcome news. Ian confirmed during a Blizzcon interview that flying will not be available in Battle for Azeroth at launch. Furthermore, Blizzard will continue with this approach for the foreseeable future in subsequent expansions.

https://youtu.be/DkdTS_8Y61Q?t=37m

Paraphrase of Ion's quote from the link above:




Its great to see Blizzard continue to acknowledge / listen to the community - and not cave in to a small minority of outspoken and melodramatic players who wouldnt know whats good for the game if it hit them in the face - in agreeing that World of Warcraft is a game best played and experienced on the ground. Its as simple as that.

Thankyou, Blizzard.

I think the biggest Flying lesson learnt from Legion is: the better the content, the lesser we need flying and ppl even care about it. The weaker the content (Warlords of Draenor) the more people will be frustrated and bored and grasp at things to complain about andor ways to skip content.

If Battle for Legions content is as strong as Legions (or better) - we can hopefully get away with having no flying for even longer this time round.

Good! I love having to get down and dirty on the ground while leveling up and questing. Flying mount takes too much out of exploration. Also, love the secret areas and jump puzzles you can only get with no flying.

[Hotsforyou]

It's funny, because i explore more with flying.

[Valysar]

Well... the old excuse "It's better to discover the world before flying blablabla" ...
1 month after the release we've already discovered all of the world

[Wewlad]

At this point I just enjoy relishing the pro-flyers' spite as they show their flaky and unreasonable selves for everyone else to see.

When will you get it through your thick skulls that Blizzard has no reason to listen to you?

Your saber rattling in WoD was only partially effective and Blizzard didn't lose much ground at all since flying is only made available when less relevant. The Classic WoW debacle completely overshadowed your 15 minutes in the spotlight.

Blizzard knows now that pro-flyers aren't that numerous—much like twinks and RPers who advocated for RP-PVP servers. All of you puffed your chests in an attempt to seem more important only to fail at actually backing it up. Now you've simply lost their interest for the most part.

[Soon-TM]

In theory, Pathfinder is all fine and dandy. In practice, cancer zones like Stormheim and Broken Shore basically make you crave for flying every second you spend there; and utter, unadulterated BS like the Good Suramaritan achievement certainly doesn't help.

[Soon-TM]

All I've learned from this thread is that I won't even bother with B4A until flight is enabled and I know exactly what to do in order to unlock it. And if I deem it too much of a grind, then bb B4A. Legion's timegating for flight has been just awful, and I won't be enduring it for a second time.

[urikhai]

All I've learned from this thread is that I won't even bother with B4A until flight is enabled and I know exactly what to do in order to unlock it. And if I deem it too much of a grind, then bb B4A. Legion's timegating for flight has been just awful, and I won't be enduring it for a second time.

I call BS on this. Let's face it, you will pre-purchase it, be here or on bnet forums flaming about how the servers aren't working. Stop trying to generate sympathy for yourself.

[hoofy]

Nothing better than trying to jump up the side of a mountain...

[Soon-TM]

I call BS on this. Let's face it, you will pre-purchase it, be here or on bnet forums flaming about how the servers aren't working. Stop trying to generate sympathy for yourself.

I call BS on you. Kindly stop telling others what they are going to do, the only prescient people belong to Dune

[Magnagarde]

In all honesty, there wasn't much excitement in having to go around on ground after so much time. If the worlds they're making were as big as 1/4 of the classic world, then one could definitely say that having to traverse terrain on foot would be an amazingly exciting thing. However, walking past the same place a thousand times over isn't something you can call exciting. I understand their position though.

I would personally love to see expansions with a lot more zones to begin with. Zones should be bigger and there should be zones that have large open areas, otherwise things feel crammed together. It feels like I'm constantly hiking or traversing a hill, going up or down some terrain.

[Deleted]

So, which Pathfinder fan is now whining about unlocking Allied Races? I am curious...

[cuafpr]

So, which Pathfinder fan is now whining about unlocking Allied Races? I am curious...

I almost spit out my water laughing at this lol

[Goremonger]

I can't wait to get to 120 and gank all the leveling alliance on kul'tiras who won't be able to escape.


edit: if you're going to quote me on this read the next post, the one saying that people WILL be toggled on for pvp, If you think there won't be anyone you're horribly naive.

I will bet you 100% that there will be people who get pvp toggle turned on accidentally and make forum posts asking how. Even then people will do it because of whatever incentive ion stated at blizzcon.

[Metacrias]

People are going to fight about this every expansion it seems...

It seems that (a) Blizzard is treating this as the norm unless an expansion is explicitly geared towards flying and (b) BfA, in particular, seems to be the kind of expansion that will benefit from the lack of flying for the first patch or so.

Beyond that, while I have supported no flying in both WoD and Legion, I think their initial implementation of it in WoD was awful and ultimately what has made this so contentious moving forward.

The roll-out in Legion was better, and made much less problematic by including the whistle.

They are learning; I'm guessing they'll have something akin to the whistle in BfA and the rollout will be better than in either WoD or Legion.