BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[Kathranis]

Aren't the mechagnomes reputation shared by both factions? In legion this was a not a problem but in BFA there would be some backlash from this

I don't think it's an issue. Wasn't in Legion and they would explain it with the unlock scenario anyway.

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I don't think they're going to make it to 9.0, but they'll support warfronts through the expansion.

I don't know about Warfronts exactly, but I think they'll use the format as inspiration for future content. Depending on how Heroic Warfronts are received, too.

I still think there's a lot of potential in the idea of having "raids" that play out more like a nonlinear battle scenario rather than "bosses with halls of trash between them,"

[MrExcelion]

This is just a guess and its too early to tell, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say we might end up with only these 2 Warfronts (or a 3rd) for the whole xpac, and they are effectively cutting support for them other than the new difficulty thing. We can speculate why its cut content (the truce after Azsharas Eternal Palace, wasn't well received, putting more focus on Mechagon and Nazjatar, time constraints), but idk. A lot of things were said in the Blizzcon 2017 interviews, like we'd had several up at once and they might actively rotate which one was up, and there was a datamined Silvermoon and Mulgore one but those never came to pass. Story-wise maybe we'll get a 3rd one before it's all said and done.

As a feature, I don't mind queueing it to try for the unique transmog set and the cosmetics from rares. From a design standpoint, I feel like the actual creation of the warfront scenario itself plus making all these rares and new cosmetics are particularly resource heavy for the relatively little amount of enjoyment people are getting. Wasn't a great tradeoff and someone higher up might have cut it.

[seleri]

If the truce holds and Sylvanas continues on the path of Arthas, I love the idea of her trying to take the Sunwell (just to get back at Lor'themar betraying her or to corrupt it with the dagger/N'zoth) and the Silvermoon warfront being Alliance+Horde vs Sylvanas "Scourge".

I have to say, I'm skeptical we'll get any new warfronts though. Unless it is some big "twist" like that, I feel like we'd have heard about it or at least gotten some kind of hint by now.

[Merryck]

I really wish they'd add Thin Humans as a customisation option for KT Humans or regular humans.

[benting]

What is it with blizzard and woman being portrayed as manipulative blizzard are acting like incels.

I don't think its the same thing. WoW's female villains aren't sleeping around or using the prospect of sex to get their way. Well, except for Azshara maybe.

[derpkitteh]

I really wish they'd add Thin Humans as a customisation option for KT Humans or regular humans.

no thank you.

i want those disgusting things to stay hidden away on kul tiras.

they're so repulsive to me that i feel revulsion every time i see them.

[Merryck]

no thank you.

i want those disgusting things to stay hidden away on kul tiras.

they're so repulsive to me that i feel revulsion every time i see them.

No u.

Not all characters need to be 10/10 perfect elf models. I prefer playing the more interesting looking races

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Anyone else think a WoW revamp/2 is in development? I reckon they're pooling resources from the current wow team into something big

[rda]

Big question of the month is: Does Blizzard even care about Warfronts(As in they aren't gonna try and iterate with them).

They are making additions to how warfronts play, but these additions so far don't look all that interesting and probably won't make warfronts much more fun - there's a short discussion about that up the thread in one of my posts (in short: what they said they are adding boils down to "boss events", these are arbitrary and uncounterable with no strategic element, and that's all they mentioned they are adding so far).

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I wish the community would actually talk and brainstorm iterations for warfronts too. They have lots of potential and could really be new end game progression. But if something isn’t great out the gate most folks just ask for it to be removed, signaling to Blizzard it’s not worth anymore effort.

It's simple, there should be a strategic element. AI should actually react to what players do, and it should be more varied. They have good and fairly creative AI in SC2, so I hoped they will do something like that for warfronts, but that didn't happen, their AI for warfronts is way too primitive. All it does is deploys forces in random directions - that's not even worthy of being called AI, that's just simple triggers / ticking timers.

What kind of reaction to player actions would be interesting? Two main ones - playing off position and playing off setup. Example for playing off position: players capture mine, then go lumber mill, the AI sees that they went lumber mill and recaptures mine. Example for playing off setup: players have only three healers, the AI sees that and does five healers and puts the rest into AOE units, this then melts the players. In all this, the AI has to be constrained by something players can affect, too, because otherwise the AI being smart enough to react to what players do just stomps the players. That also adds strategy for the players - they can be proactive / play off their strong sides. Etc. This is difficult, yes. But without that, there's just no interest. If they weren't prepared to do it and just thought they'll get by with some simple scripts spawning units from time to time and some semblance of the AI on a tactical level (which also isn't particularly involved or interesting), well, they were mistaken - and the results are before us.

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In short: I don't think warfronts will be improved much. Maybe they will be repurposed for PVP, but that's it. PVE warfronts depend on the AI being good and making the AI good is just too difficult. I don't think we'll have warfronts in 9.0. They do take a fair bit of resources to develop, they are costly due to all the buildings (not talking about models, just the logical structure, buffs, etc) / units / events / triggers / mainline scenario - and they don't bring a lot.

[Directionalk9]

They are making additions to how warfronts play, but these additions so far don't look all that interesting and probably won't make warfronts much more fun - there's a short discussion about that up the thread in one of my posts (in short: what they said they are adding boils down to "boss events", these are arbitrary and uncounterable with no strategic element, and that's all they mentioned they are adding so far).

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It's simple, there should be a strategic element. AI should actually react to what players do, and it should be more varied. They have good and fairly creative AI in SC2, so I hoped they will do something like that for warfronts, but that didn't happen, their AI for warfronts is way too primitive. All it does is deploys forces in random directions - that's not even worthy of being called AI, that's just simple triggers / ticking timers.

What kind of reaction to player actions would be interesting? Two main ones - playing off position and playing off setup. Example for playing off position: players capture mine, then go lumber mill, the AI sees that they went lumber mill and recaptures mine. Example for playing off setup: players have only three healers, the AI sees that and does five healers and puts the rest into AOE units, this then melts the players. In all this, the AI has to be constrained by something players can affect, too, because otherwise the AI being smart enough to react to what players do just stomps the players. That also adds strategy for the players - they can be proactive / play off their strong sides. Etc. This is difficult, yes. But without that, there's just no interest. If they weren't prepared to do it and just thought they'll get by with some simple scripts spawning units from time to time and some semblance of the AI on a tactical level (which also isn't particularly involved or interesting), well, they were mistaken - and the results are before us.

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In short: I don't think warfronts will be improved much. Maybe they will be repurposed for PVP, but that's it. PVE warfronts depend on the AI being good and making the AI good is just too difficult. I don't think we'll have warfronts in 9.0. They do take a fair bit of resources to develop, they are costly due to all the buildings (not talking about models, just the logical structure, buffs, etc) / units / events / triggers / mainline scenario - and they don't bring a lot.

I agree, and want all of this and more in warfronts. I’m not usually cynical towards Blizzards or one to call them lazy or close minded, however in this regard I don’t think they’ll do the right thing here. Warfronts revamp undoubtedly will take time, money and resources, and like I said earlier I can see it as an endgame progression path on par with raiding and rated pvp.

As it stands now I don’t see them as pvp I mean they already exist as pvp for the most part. It would just use the warfronts map and be IOC or AV pretty much. Current warfronts are just 20 man MoP scenarios, something I thought would be cool at WoD’s launch, but fell flat...not as flat as IE, as I can’t see any way to redeem that system.

[rda]

^^ Regarding warfronts being not as flat as IE - IE can be partly recovered relatively easily by making them solo + followers and removing the stupid timer. Then you'll care about quests and events and collectibles and will perhaps do IE here and there with minimal bribes in terms of rewards (current azerite levels / treasure map / world quest completion is enough).

[Directionalk9]

^^ Regarding warfronts being not as flat as IE - IE can be partly recovered relatively easily by making them solo + followers and removing the stupid timer. Then you'll care about quests and events and collectibles and will perhaps do IE here and there with minimal bribes in terms of rewards (current azerite levels / treasure map / world quest completion is enough).

I agree here too, I would like to just go to them and explore and figure out puzzles for my collectibles. The “racing/timed” aspect is what kills IEs for me. I don’t mind the 3 man group nature of IEs, it’s that the purpose is to get AP. I want to explore and get mog damnit

[rda]

I agree here too, I would like to just go to them and explore and figure out puzzles for my collectibles. The “racing/timed” aspect is what kills IEs for me. I don’t mind the 3 man group nature of IEs, it’s that the purpose is to get AP. I want to explore and get mog damnit

Yup, and I want to explore the entire island with each new kill / chest giving more chances at loot. Let me stay on this island for 50 minutes if I want to clear every nook and cranny, dammit. Let me stay for however long I want, and let me exit whenever claiming however much fake azerite I managed to collect.

[Hitei]

I think that would be the easiest option; let players queue for an exploration IE. In Exploration mode, the IE offers half Azerite than normal but there is no enemy team. Bonus points if we get a bodyguard when doing it that way.

If anything, people will be running IEs for several expansions after now just for the collectibles anyway. Give them a mode to do that.

You want half the reward for a version that is literally impossible to lose? Maybe like 20-25% of the azerite and significantly reduced drop rates.

[Hitei]

Because it is so easy to lose normal or heroic . . .

Easy and impossible to lose are on two completely different levels. You might as well ask for solo queue LFR where your character can't die and does 20 times the damage but loot drops 50% as often.

[Hitei]

Where on earth did the 20 times more damage come? I never suggested you'd be able to do MORE damage. You'd go on a normal island and solo it. It's perfectly doable but if you pull everything on sight, you will die. It will be three times slower than doing a normal island is now. And you'd have to do it 12 times instead of 6 to get your weekly treasure map.

Because LFR HP is tuned for raids and on an island you can't lose you don't even need to do damage? You could literally just take an extractor, clear the surrounding area and AFK. The timer is already easy, what possible value is there in making islands completely braindead?

[Archmage Alodi]

Using the Sunwell as the "capture point" would honestly be a genius move for a Warfront, though it would 100% sour Alliance/Horde relations that they seem to be building back up in 8.2

It could be H/A vs Bad Guys, and both factions can queue together. Wouldn't be that bad to have some content that could be done with both factions players actually teamed up together.
Hope they make something fun out of Warfronts instead of scrapping them after spending all this time and resources to make them.

[Raetary]

eeeey, the companion app is back!

[huth]

Because LFR HP is tuned for raids and on an island you can't lose you don't even need to do damage? You could literally just take an extractor, clear the surrounding area and AFK. The timer is already easy, what possible value is there in making islands completely braindead?

IE cannot be lost anyway. You still get credit for all you've done. Only way to not get anything is to leave before it ends.

It's also not a timer. The AI team has to collect Azerite just like the players or their bar won't move. The 10 minute timer is only for the Azerite Radar.

[Nathanyel]

If we do get a Goblin VS Worgen warfront though, where would it take place? Why would Goblins be assignated to Gilneas for example?

Goblin Azerite Extraction in Gilneas? While I'd be happily surprised by the Alliance not being the defending/reacting/liberating side, no other location with significance comes to mind.
Genn could attack Gallywix's palace, but that's to close to Orgrimmar to be realistically defensible once taken. On the other hand, Blizz could shake up the "story" of Warfronts to not be a cycle of conquests, which can't be canon anyway, but an assault from the Alliance, with the Horde pushing back, aiming to destroy their staging point to break the assault.
The reason for this attack is obvious, taking out Gallywix would remove the only racial leader with unwavering support for Sylvanas, strengthening the rebellion (the Mag'har will eventually side with the Azeroth Orcs, when Eitrigg stands up to Sylvanas and Saurfang returns) and also simply revenge for the presumed death of Mekkatorque.
The impeachment killing of Gallywix could happen even in the Horde version, as the main Horde force takes the Alliance base, an assassin commando slips into the palace and offs him.
Gazlowe is basically fully Horde-aligned by now, he could become the new leader, or established Bilgewater characters become at least Cartel Leader. Megs Dreadshredder and Sassy Hardwrench have often been speculated as successors (if the right wing of the playerbase can handle another female leader taking over from a male)

[DeicideUH]

There was a recent interview (sorry, forgot which one) in which they said that there would be more warfronts ahead.

I'd love to see a Myst Isles warfront, where you have draenei and lightforged securing the isles long enough for refugees to escape while the Horde invasion is led by the mag'har plus some other race (trolls? Or maybe ogres?), in a nod to the events of both Draenors.

Another possible one is a warfront in Quel'thalas, with the Alliance invasion, led by void and high elves, being resisted by blood elves and nightborne.

These could tie-in with my theory that Sylvanas plans to do something nasty with the Sunwell. She sends Lor'themar to Nazjatar to keep him out of the way, attacks Myst Isles to force the Alliance and Horde to focus there, then moves to Quel'thalas. The Alliance elves learn of her presence in the north, and push for an invasion to end the war. She uses the distraction to do her stuff.

The Myst Isles warfront could come out in 8.2.5, while the final one comes in 8.3.

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Failing that, I think a tauren + troll vs. dwarf + gnome warfront in the Barrens would be really cool, but the story is moving away from that direction.