Content update timing

[Cena]

So I read this is reddit. Don't know if anyone else read this:

Legion Launch Date - 8/30/16
Legion First Raid Launch Date - 9/20/16 (3 weeks post launch)
Legion First Major Patch Date - 10/25/16 (8 weeks post launch)
Legion Second Raid Launch Date - 11/8/16 (7 weeks post first raid)

BfA Launch Date - 8/14/18 (nearly 3 months more time to build than Legion)
BfA First Raid Launch Date - 9/4/18 (3 weeks post launch)
BfA First Major Patch Date - 12/11/18 (17 weeks post launch - aka more than twice as long as Legion)
BfA Second Raid Launch Date - 1/22/19 (Estimated) (20 weeks post first raid - aka nearly 3 times as long as Legion)

So BFA looks like another shitshow in terms of content being released within the first 4 months after launch. Maybe it will get better going forward, but this doesn't give me much hope. So what do you guys think of this?

[Trend]

Some people like to cherry pick things to complain about. You ask what I think about it? I think it's a stupid complaint. There are a lot of things not to like about BfA but this isn't one of them.

The Legion raid launch schedule:

The Emerald Nightmare - September 20, 2016
Trial of Valor - November 8, 2016
The Nighthold - January 17, 2017
Tomb of Sargeras - June 20, 2017
Antorus, the Burning Throne - November 28, 2017

ToV was widely considered to have launch too early, besides the fact it was like a half-tier which they haven't done since. BfA is using the same kind of raid launch schedule that was used for Legion if you exclude the singular oddball ToV experiment.

[Cena]

Some people like to cherry pick things to complain about. You ask what I think about it? I think it's a stupid complaint. There are a lot of things not to like about BfA but this isn't one of them.

The Legion raid launch schedule:

The Emerald Nightmare - September 20, 2016
Trial of Valor - November 8, 2016
The Nighthold - January 17, 2017
Tomb of Sargeras - June 20, 2017
Antorus, the Burning Throne - November 28, 2017

ToV was widely considered to have launch too early, besides the fact it was like a half-tier which they haven't done since. BfA is using the same kind of raid launch schedule that was used for Legion if you exclude the singular oddball ToV experiment.

Not really complaining. I just said it doesn't give me much hope. I mean there was literally nothing to do for majority of october and all of november.

[Trend]

Not really complaining. I just said it doesn't give me much hope. I mean there was literally nothing to do for majority of october and all of november.

You're implying that BfA is worse than Legion in regards to the release schedule, which sounds like a complaint, by the way. What I am saying is that if you're looking at Legion as a whole and not cherry picking one odd thing, the release schedule is the same.

If you already ran everything you wanted to run at the highest level you would ever want to run it at, then sure, nothing left to do. But you would have had the same problem in Legion.

[Cena]

You're implying that BfA is worse than Legion in regards to the release schedule, which sounds like a complaint, by the way. What I am saying is that if you're looking at Legion as a whole and not cherry picking one odd thing, the release schedule is the same.

If you already ran everything you wanted to run at the highest level you would ever want to run it at, then sure, nothing left to do. But you would have had the same problem in Legion.

Right the raid launch date are pretty much on par compared to legion so far. But ya I don't really try to go for achievements and do pet battles and all that. Mythic dungeons and raid gear is pretty much maxed out, including reps, so ya for me there is nothing much left to do. I think they could have released at least something in between to keep things more engaging. Such as what they did with Karazhan.

[thesmall001]

You're implying that BfA is worse than Legion in regards to the release schedule, which sounds like a complaint, by the way. What I am saying is that if you're looking at Legion as a whole and not cherry picking one odd thing, the release schedule is the same.

If you already ran everything you wanted to run at the highest level you would ever want to run it at, then sure, nothing left to do. But you would have had the same problem in Legion.

I think a lot of people forget how much 3-day time gating there was in Legion. It was one of the biggest complaints and I remember saying then, "if there weren't any gates, you'd consume all the content in a few weeks and the drought would begin" and, lo, not gating in BfA (coupled with, admittedly, a fuck-ton less end-game story content) and we're roughly the same amount of time between Nightmare and Nighthold but it feels like an eternity.

And next week's patch will 100% not help. It's a single stretch of war campaign each, which (combined) roughly equals the total size (or slightly more) of the Insurrection storyline setting up Nighthold, but without the same amount of content as ALL of Suramar to back it up. So we're not as invested because there hasn't been as much story build up. Most people have peace'd out of the Warfronts feature, myself not included, and so trying to use that as a story framing device will probably backfire.

Meanwhile, the big Azerite fixes aren't landing till January, it seems. And there's still no further development to the HoA system... So exalted is just for nothing. No big reward, no extra level, no story. I don't know where all the resources have gone but there's far less world content than Legion.

[Doffen]

They said countless times that they released 7.1 way too early and it was a mistake. Emerald Nightmare was so easy that they released ToV fast.

Simple as that. I am all for more patches, and think this patch should have come mid-november instead, but hey, I am glad they don't rush the patch like they did with the BfA-launch. If anything, I guess we should be happy they are taking their time, Blizzard style.

[Argorwal]

How does your raid/patch release dates compare to Wrath-Cata-MoP-WoD?

Legion went all out with the class specific content, which was amazing, and really unprecedented in its scope for any WoW expansion. Some classes had tidbits here and there in past expansions (or quite a bit like Warlocks in MoP), but Legion offering class specific story lines, weapons, mounts, etc. was amazing and unfortunately was obvious it wasn't something that was going to be continued forever, just like we had been through 5 other expansions without it.

It really added to the replayability of the expansion.

[Kathranis]

They said that they wanted 8.1 to release later in the cycle than they did 7.1 but that their overall patch cycle was going to generally reflect Legion's. They felt 7.1 came too early, when people were still largely working on content that came out at launch.

I think extenuating circumstances (unanticipated systems changes) have kind of prolonged this patch longer than they wanted. Ion basically said as much when the release date for 8.1 was announced.

The "season" content cycle is still going to be roughly the same. Legion launched late August, Emerald Nightmare opened September, and Nighthold opened January. BFA launched in August, Uldir launched in September, Dazar'alor launches in January.

The big difference is that Legion got a mini raid and mega dungeon between its first and second raids, whereas BFA is getting a mini raid and mega dungeon between its second and third raids.


I think they basically made two big mistakes with the patch cycle in BFA so far:

First, released the expansion earlier than was probably necessary. Could have released in September, it would have been fine. Legion's tail end wasn't too bad, it had the Allied Race unlocks and Challenge modes and stuff to keep people invested for another few weeks at least.

Second, they're scheduling the mini raid and mega dungeon to come after the second raid instead of before it.

My guess is basically that they were trying to avoid a repeat of the Broken Shore and saw that the launch window of Legion probably had an overabundance of content, so they decided to shift a lot of the smaller 7.1-style content over to patches 8.1.5 and 8.2.

However, issues with the reward experience, namely Azerite and AP, has left BFA's initial launch window content feeling less compelling, and while 8.1 technically does have quite a lot of improvements, the lack of an immediate new weekly repeatable piece of content from October-January is going to hurt it.


So bad news is the stretch from Raid 1 and Raid 2 is lighter, but the upside is the stretch from Raid 2 to Raid 3 is going to have a ton of stuff.