BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

umm... i dont know what to say.

[THEORACLE64]

umm... i dont know what to say.

It'll just be the top bit I presume. He'll probably have other tentacles and bits around him, plus it's still a PTR build.

[Sarkol]

umm... i dont know what to say.

It does look bland, but that's because it's a completely out of context model. In game he'll look awesome i'd imagine.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

It'll just be the top bit I presume. He'll probably have other tentacles and bits around him, plus it's still a PTR build.

this gives me madness of deathwing vibes. i really dont want to fight his tentacles and the boss just ends. just put him in the animation studio and he has like 4-5 custom animations and basically theyre just his eyes blinking or him glowing purple or orange at the bottom. :/

[Blayze]

For what it's worth, I looked up the current state of Allied Races/Warfront/Heritage for the races of the game.

Race	Warfront	Heritage	Allied
Human	x		x
Dwarf		x	x
Night Elf	x		x
Gnome		x	x
Draenei			x
Worgen		x
Pandaren
Orc	x		x
Undead	x
Tauren		x	x
Troll			x
Blood Elf		x	x
Goblin		x	x

As we can see, the ones needing some love are Pandaren, Undead, Worgen first and foremost. Next, I'd argue Draenei and Trolls are up for Heritage armour. Lastly, Humans, Orcs, Night Elves and Undead may get their Heritage armour.

The Big Four from WC3 have Warfront armour, though; that just leaves Draenei, pandaren and the Darkspear.

[Foolicious]

He's ... adorable... cute... ?

New title
%s, Servant of N'Zoth -
New faction
N'zoth

He's not so bad after all confirmed?

[Nyel]

At least now we know what that orange glow from the 8.2 trailer was.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

https://www.twitch.tv/wowhead

[Adoxe]

I'm so glad he looks just like the artwork

[EbaumsTipster]

I hate that this basically confirms his tentacles are separate models, which means his "fight" will just be smacking his tentacles.

Madness of Deathwing sucked, and this will too.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Well 8.3 surely is exciting and Ny'alotha looks wonderful. The worgen heritage armor is a tad disappointing, but I'll just hide the shoulderpads I guess.

As for the patch itself, even though there is new art within the raid, it feels "light" artistically-wise. I think the art team must be pretty busy with 9.0, and whatever it's going to be, it's going to be BIG.

Also I love the fact that we're making legendary capes again, it's a nice throwback in a sense.

[George Costanza]

8.3 Epic Battleground - Warfront Arathi (PvP)

OH shit.

YES YES YES

[Poizo]

He's ... adorable... cute... ?

New title
%s, Servant of N'Zoth -
New faction
N'zoth

He's not so bad after all confirmed?

Or we lose and Sylvanas statement is right at the end of 8.2.5.

[Makorus]

8.3 Epic Battleground - Warfront Arathi (PvP)

OH shit.

YES YES YES

I cant believe it took them until now to make that happen.

This might actually make Warfronts exciting.

[THEORACLE64]

https://www.twitch.tv/wowhead

My god they're annoying.

[Raetary]

this gives me madness of deathwing vibes. i really dont want to fight his tentacles and the boss just ends. just put him in the animation studio and he has like 4-5 custom animations and basically theyre just his eyes blinking or him glowing purple or orange at the bottom. :/

It's literally his head.
We'll fight him the exact same way we fought every Old god beforehand.

The tip of their body with a fuckton of tentacles.

The difference this time is only that he will be like 3-5 times as large.

- - - Updated - - -

That is unavoidable.

[DeicideUH]

Patch looks good, but I am a little bitter how this expansion was total bait and switch in the story. You look back to the expansion trailers and now this patch, and it's clear the story has no focus. It starts in some way and ends completely unrelated. I was expecting them to at least tie both narratives together in the final act, but we are instead abandoning the original premise and switching to a new one (that was hinted at, of course, but it still is unlrelated to the original one).

[Makorus]

Grand Empress Shek'zara - With the awakening of N'Zoth, Shek'zara, empress of the mantid, pledged her swarm to the old god's will. In service of her dark master, she unleashed her forces upon the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to claim Pandaria in N'Zoth's name.

New world boss. Interesting.

Wrathion, the Black Emperor - Despite all his schemes, Wrathion could not avoid succumbing to the madness that claimed his father. With his mind corrupted by N'Zoth, the Black Prince is a force of unbridled hatred, capable of annihilating all who oppose him in blood and flame.

Wrathion is actually corrupted LMAO

Il'gynoth, Corruption Reborn - After defeat in the Emerald Nightmare, Il'gynoth retreated to the depths of Ny'alotha. Here, he has merged with the very architecture of N'Zoth's plane. Spreading like a malignant tumor, Il'gynoth's corruption continues to feed on everything he touches.

He back.

Also, Wrathions dragon form was shown on the wowhead stream and it looks amazing.

[Sarethion]

So, I wonder what this is:

Teeming Island

And apparently we get 2 more reputations:

Uldum Accord - Grants reputation with the Uldum Accord.
Rajani - Grants reputation with the Rajani.

This is also interesting:

Vision of Boralus - 83VisionsofNzothBoralus

And there's also a whole heap of various locations (a lot of them are from the Broken Isles!) that got "<name>nzoth" database entries. Really curious what this means. Perhaps unlike the Legion, N'zoth really does strike everywhere.

[Dracullus]

The Big Four from WC3 have Warfront armour, though; that just leaves Draenei, pandaren and the Darkspear.

To fill blanks, we could get:

- Allied Races: Lightsomething Undead for Alliance, something-based-on-worgen-model (Saberon?) for Horde, Tortollan neutral race - "Pandaren" AR (you must pick side)

- Heritage: Troll/Draenei + Pandaren (maybe with blue and red versions)

Patch looks good, but I am a little bitter how this expansion was total bait and switch in the story. You look back to the expansion trailers and now this patch, and it's clear the story has no focus. It starts in some way and ends completely unrelated. I was expecting them to at least tie both narratives together in the final act, but we are instead abandoning the original premise and switching to a new one (that was hinted at, of course, but it still is unlrelated to the original one).

BfA literally started with this plot. 4/5 raids (Uldir/Shrine/Palace/Nyalotha) are focused on it. Questing experience was mostly about Old God threat on Zandalar side, more varied on Alliance side, but still it was not about H/A story. Obviously same with Nazjatar and Uldum/Vale stuff in 8.3.

If we think about it, war was present only in pre-patch, war campaign, few leveling quest and 2nd raid. It's pretty funny actually.

Of course I hope 8.3 will be focused on Azerite/healing Azeroth as well, it should be connected to N'zoth threat.