BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[dcc626]

I'm sure timegating a .x.5 questline over several weeks is exactly what players want and the game needs at the moment.

the alternative is to dump it all out at once and then listen to people complaining about nothing to do until 8.3, which will probably be early next year.


here is the part where you just tell blizzard to make more content. its so easy!

[Justpassing]

the alternative is to dump it all out at once and then listen to people complaining about nothing to do until 8.3, which will probably be early next year.


here is the part where you just tell blizzard to make more content. its so easy!

Only the Sith deal in absolutes. Also:



Also pretty sure you'll miss the point, presented rather flimsily: There should be a median content pace. Don't ask me how, I'm not privy to the content creation process but instead of tearing at eachother maybe people should demand such a pace. But hey, what do I know?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

.5 patches generally aren't supposed to be treated like .1 .2 .3 patches these days. Set your expectations accordingly. Also the gaps are I think trying to not be so quick like Nighthold was then Tomb of Sargeras. That and..I think they want to lessen the gap between expansions.

[DeicideUH]

Here’s my release date guess:

- Release candidate later this week or during next week.
- 8.2.5 released in October 1st
- Campaign has four chapters, one per week. Last chapter comes out one week before Blizzcon, leading to mass speculation about 8.3 and 9.0.

[Sondrelk]

Only the Sith deal in absolutes. Also:

-snip-

Also pretty sure you'll miss the point, presented rather flimsily: There should be a median content pace. Don't ask me how, I'm not privy to the content creation process but instead of tearing at eachother maybe people should demand such a pace. But hey, what do I know?

Isnt a story spread out over 5 weeks already kind of a median though? The alternative is Blizz having a basic idea for how long the patch will last and only giving us story bits with enough room to last the entire patch.

All depends on the amount of quests, and the quality of each quest i suppose, but i would like to think that 5 weeks of 4-5 quests eac his a nice enough amount if what is happening in the quests is important enough. Like the Battlefront: Barrens of 5.3. Or the Insurrection campaign of 7.1.

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Here’s my release date guess:

- Release candidate later this week or during next week.
- 8.2.5 released in October 1st
- Campaign has four chapters, one per week. Last chapter comes out one week before Blizzcon, leading to mass speculation about 8.3 and 9.0.

Sounds about right.

Given that there is the Wrathion quest as well, i suppose Blizz might skip the first week, and instead condense the war campaign into 3 weeks. But that is getting into the nitty gritty of it.

[Nyel]

the alternative is to dump it all out at once and then listen to people complaining about nothing to do until 8.3, which will probably be early next year.


here is the part where you just tell blizzard to make more content. its so easy!

When people are crying for new content just 3 months after a major (and most likely the biggest content patch this expansion) content patch plus raid tier has been released there must be a major issue with how content is developed and consumed and how lasting it indeed is. That's one of the major problems retail WoW has for years now, in Legion there were things to counter that (Mage Tower for example), yet BfA is completely lacking that. Not (just) the pace is the problem, the content itself is @Justpassing.

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Here’s my release date guess:

- Release candidate later this week or during next week.
- 8.2.5 released in October 1st
- Campaign has four chapters, one per week. Last chapter comes out one week before Blizzcon, leading to mass speculation about 8.3 and 9.0.

This sounds plausible but to space it out over 4 weeks the amount of content the war campaign contains must be quite a lot.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

As long as it isn't the Broken Shore "chapters" I think Blizzard will be fine. Unfortunately 7.2's chapter questline...was..............well...fun on its own...very very short.

[Sondrelk]

When people are crying for new content just 3 months after a major (and most likely the biggest content patch this expansion) content patch plus raid tier has been released there must be a major issue with how content is developed and consumed and how lasting it indeed is. That's one of the major problems retail WoW has for years now, in Legion there were things to counter that (Mage Tower for example), yet BfA is completely lacking that. Not (just) the pace is the problem, the content itself is @Justpassing.

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This sounds plausible but to space it out over 4 weeks the amount of content the war campaign contains must be quite a lot.

The only thing Legion really had that was long lasting was Mage tower though. And sure, i liked it as much as the next guy, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking Legion had way more content like that. Mostly the longevity of that came from endlessly grinding the Legiondary RNG wheel.

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As long as it isn't the Broken Shore "chapters" I think Blizzard will be fine. Unfortunately 7.2's chapter questline...was..............well...fun on its own...very very short.

At the end of Legion i levelled one of every class to 110 for the Mage tower and Class mounts, and going through the 7.2 questline really put it in perspective how vapid it was. Most of it was done within 30 minutes, and even then mostly because of the few grind quests, like killing 50 demons, or flying to Azsuna for a fetch quest.

[Justpassing]

I don't know you guys, I mean it would be the bees' knees if we didn't have either an hour of questing every week for five weeks, or five hours of questing with no timegating - but I guess that's having your cake and eating it too and we can't do anything about it

I'm sad now, I'm going to retreat to my cardboard box fort. Smell ya later.

[DeicideUH]

I’m thinking the war campaignchapters will be somewhat like Argus chapters: short questlines, with a few side quests, and repeatable world quests.

[Nyel]

The only thing Legion really had that was long lasting was Mage tower though. And sure, i liked it as much as the next guy, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking Legion had way more content like that. Mostly the longevity of that came from endlessly grinding the Legiondary RNG wheel.

Totally agree but there was a reason to do that. In BfA there isn't. I don't say grinding M+ or caches for legendaries was the best thing ever but it kept you (me) motivated. BfA has nothing like that (or Mage Tower).

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I’m thinking the war campaignchapters will be somewhat like Argus chapters: short questlines, with a few side quests, and repeatable world quests.

I mean it's weird to conclude the faction war in a minor patch, I'd expect that for a content patch (the tasks you listed) and not for a .x.5 patch though. Even if 8.3 will then have Alliance+Horde vs. Sylvanas or whatever. Battle of Dazralor was a major patch to. That's more what I would expect from the climax of the faction war.

[George Costanza]

I could see it releasing early october.

But we need that release build first.

[Valysar]

We can't test the final storyline on PTR yet ? Only the one with Wrathion ?

[Drekmar]

We can't test the final storyline on PTR yet ? Only the one with Wrathion ?

Yeap, it's all encrypted.

[Directionalk9]

the alternative is to dump it all out at once and then listen to people complaining about nothing to do until 8.3, which will probably be early next year.


here is the part where you just tell blizzard to make more content. its so easy!

And the world record for “hitting the nail on the head” goes too... You my good sir or madam.

[FlubberPuddy]

We can't test the final storyline on PTR yet ? Only the one with Wrathion ?

Don't even know if they'll let the public test the storyline

[Nathanyel]

As long as it isn't the Broken Shore "chapters" I think Blizzard will be fine. Unfortunately 7.2's chapter questline...was..............well...fun on its own...very very short.

Technically, the Class Mount quests were part of that, too. People always fail to acknowledge that.

The 11 weekly quests were intended less as "valuable story content" but artificial time-gating to delay Pathfinder Part Two, as Breaching the Tomb was a criterium of Pathfinder in the very early builds. But alas, whining happened, so what remained were these simple, time-gated quests that apparently lead nowhere.

[Sondrelk]

Technically, the Class Mount quests were part of that, too. People always fail to acknowledge that.

The 11 weekly quests were intended less as "valuable story content" but artificial time-gating to delay Pathfinder Part Two, as Breaching the Tomb was a criterium of Pathfinder in the very early builds. But alas, whining happened, so what remained were these simple, time-gated quests that apparently lead nowhere.

I ma fairly convinced they are actually placeholder quests while Blizz made an actual raid questline where we got to see some of the bosses and everythng else a good raid questline should have, but then the Class mount questlines and the Follower questline for each class took up too much development time, and they decided to cut it short when they saw that they had technically created one of the most story heavy patches in the game.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Technically, the Class Mount quests were part of that, too. People always fail to acknowledge that.

The 11 weekly quests were intended less as "valuable story content" but artificial time-gating to delay Pathfinder Part Two, as Breaching the Tomb was a criterium of Pathfinder in the very early builds. But alas, whining happened, so what remained were these simple, time-gated quests that apparently lead nowhere.

Thats fair, I forgot about the class mount.

[Dracullus]

I still think patch will launch next week, because it will be just few days before Classic wave subs would run out. Of course for that we need release build and maybe Q&A this week. So tomorrow we may know the answer.

8.1's war campaign was timegated over 5 weeks. I think we can expect the same again for 8.2.5, with the final phase and cinematics unlocking happening right before Blizzcon to generate maximum hype.

If I'm right 8.2.5 should hit live on October 1-2.

It wouldn't be fair to say that "8.1 campaign was timegated over 5 weeks". I had 4 chapters, we got first 3 on release day and 4th was connected to raid release. I doubt anyone serious would want new raid tier 2 weeks before Christmas.

I still think that timegating story quests may work really well. But quests must take ~40-60 minutes of relaxed questing and take story further. I don't get why Blizzard haven't repeat 7.1 style, they hit jackpot with Insurrection and never repeat it again.

And don't tell me they don't have resources. They managed to make 2 separate questing experience for BfA with really tight release window.

I ma fairly convinced they are actually placeholder quests while Blizz made an actual raid questline where we got to see some of the bosses and everythng else a good raid questline should have, but then the Class mount questlines and the Follower questline for each class took up too much development time, and they decided to cut it short when they saw that they had technically created one of the most story heavy patches in the game.

I think the same. They planned 12 week questline for Kil'jaeden build up -> they'll made class chapters -> they run out of time. I remember that on first 7.2 screens campaign was even required for flying.