9.0 General Discussion

[ExiHext]

On stream???

Only in Hyrja's wet dreams.
Come on guys, as if blizzard wouldn't use a new class to pad them sweet sweet pre-purchases.

[Nyel]

Only in Hyrja's wet dreams.
Come on guys, as if blizzard wouldn't use a new class to pad them sweet sweet pre-purchases.

This.

If Blizzard announces a new class just now it's solely because Shadowlands pre-orders have been abysmal and they needed to create something within a few months to salvage Shadowlands overall. Nobody in their right minds would think they were working on a class for more than a few months and then not reveal it during the Blizzcon announcement.

[Blayze]

We're not going to get Tinkers anyway, purely because they blew their wad on that with Mechagon, and it's "too late to be thematically appropriate now."

Same could be true of a dragon-inspired class and all the dragon empowerments the HoA has had, although a trip to the Dragon Isles might change that.

[KainneAbsolute]

Maybe they messed everything with level squish

[FuujCraft]

Maybe they messed everything with level squish

I doubt that. I think 8.3s poor reception to core systems of Shadowlands made them do a 180 in regards of Torghast and "Corruption 2.0" so they had to go back to the drawing board.

[Beerplz]

I doubt that. I think 8.3s poor reception to core systems of Shadowlands made them do a 180 in regards of Torghast and "Corruption 2.0" so they had to go back to the drawing board.

What makes you think that ? Especially since corruption 2.0 was never mentioned for Shadowlands , Corruption was just a test of what they can do with items without TF/WF which was a good test to know what works and what doesn't

[Nyel]

What makes you think that ? Especially since corruption 2.0 was never mentioned for Shadowlands , Corruption was just a test of what they can do with items without TF/WF which was a good test to know what works and what doesn't

Corruption makes sense in regards of a new item progression system. It fits the Shadowlands, e.g. the longer you stay in one zone the more affected you get by that. Maybe each zone has a specific kind of corruption type. Or corruption is the progression system going on in Torghast. The higher you climb the stronger you get but with downsides. Most "final patch game mechanics" made a return sooner or later as the final patch is a testing ground for new stuff. Crucible was later part Azerite gear part Essences and Soulbinds look too much like Crucible 2.0 as well. In one way or another corruption was planned to make a comeback.

[FuujCraft]

What makes you think that ? Especially since corruption 2.0 was never mentioned for Shadowlands , Corruption was just a test of what they can do with items without TF/WF which was a good test to know what works and what doesn't

Horrific Visions was a test for Torghast and Corruption a test for whatever RNG Shadowlands will have. They said that during blizzcon. HV were received okay. Corruption split the community right in half, so it makes sense that they iterate on the ideas and change things. Same with Covenant Abilities, those were pretty hated on during Blizzcon and afer the reveal of the DK abilities. So they had to iterate on that aswell, this is speculation, sure, but it fits right into the delayed Alpha. COVID-19 might be a factor, but nowhere near as big as people think. They try to work in a lot of Feedback from 8.3 and Blizzcon.

[Beerplz]

I would say Corruption 2.0 could just be the craftable Legendaries (slapping corruption effects on an item and bam) but who knows tbh. When alpha drops next week we will know for sure.

[Collected]

Don't forget New World. We all know how Blizzard loves to distract us during other MMO shenanigans.

[Feral Druid ist Op]

Calia in Tirisfal with dark rangers? What quest is this?

end of the warcampain for horde at least dont know about alliance

[Sondrelk]

end of the warcampain for horde at least dont know about alliance

The Alliance only gets to see Calia leave to go to Tirisfal, we never get to see what actually happens to her unless we check that on a Horde alt or read it on a 3rd party website.

[Revamp Man]

This.

If Blizzard announces a new class just now it's solely because Shadowlands pre-orders have been abysmal and they needed to create something within a few months to salvage Shadowlands overall. Nobody in their right minds would think they were working on a class for more than a few months and then not reveal it during the Blizzcon announcement.

I mean a slight possibility as to why they did not announce it is because the class was not ready

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Don't forget New World. We all know how Blizzard loves to distract us during other MMO shenanigans.

Yeah they can deny it but they plan stuff around that

- - - Updated - - -

Wouldn't that make them on par with Druids, since they also have 4 specs?
I could see Kyrian for tanking, Venthyr for dps (spellcasting?) , Necrolords for physical dps/ maybe also a 'pet spec?' (they'd have an undead pet), and Night Fae for healing. Not sure if they'd make it a Hero class, maybe no because we have DKs?

Any and all new classes are pretty much guaranteed to be hero classes because the one time they did not do that was with monks and they remain the least played class in the game

[Edoll]

Does anyone have the timeline for other expansion announcements and first datamined builds? Not having a datamined build in March hardly seems like proof there’s been a delay to me.

[Nyel]

I mean a slight possibility as to why they did not announce it is because the class was not ready

Not really. A class is one of if not the selling factor of an expansion. To not have it ready is the worst thing you can do, every available resource prior to Blizzcon should go into making the new class at least presentable. Doesn't mean we need animations and a fully developed class, but the concept and some nice art pieces should be there. This would have been ready if a class was planned right before Blizzcon because that's basically the stuff you start with during creation process.

There are really only three options:

1. A new class was never planned and isn't to come.

2. A new class wasn't planned but due to bad pre-order numbers for Shadowlands (and the outrage of no new class announced) they decided to do come up with a class from scratch.

3. Corona has a way bigger influence on their business as expected.

[Asphyx22]

Calia in Tirisfal with dark rangers? What quest is this?

Yeah, you basically get to see what happens to the Nelf dark rangers that Sylvanas forced into undeath. They leave the Forsaken to join Calia.

[Nyel]

Does anyone have the timeline for other expansion announcements and first datamined builds? Not having a datamined build in March hardly seems like proof there’s been a delay to me.

March is over though.

Legion's Alpha started in the last months of 2015, BfA's Alpha end of January 2018. BfA's datamining - afaik - started in January 2018, right before Alpha. Based on BfA's later patches and no 8.3.5 and Shadowlands release in Q4 I think everything is pretty much going on as planned. Shadowlands was never meant to launch in Q3 like Legion and BfA.

[Kumorii]

I would be really surprised if that happened, wonder why they didn't announce it at blizzcon as it's a pretty big announcement if true

If that's the case it could be that they have a class in the works, which they probably have well in advance, but it wasn't certain it could be made in time for Shadowlands. Now they managed to fix or solve an issue they had trouble with and it might mean it can be made in time for SL... Just speculating, not saying it's true or not.

[Hitei]

Any and all new classes are pretty much guaranteed to be hero classes because the one time they did not do that was with monks and they remain the least played class in the game

Monks are not the least popular because they aren't a hero class (not that hero classes will even really be a thing after Shadowlands, since all they're doing is skipping 10 levels). Monks were unpopular because from the start monk is not a super popular, extremely desired archtype the way that DH and DK are. And WoW's monk in particular had the additional hurdle of have a very specifically pandaren aesthetic that many people didn't/don't like, so even a portion of the small group that would have been interested wasn't because the class was so tied to Pandaria.

[Beerplz]

We don't need more classes . Blizzard already has a hard time to balance the current ones and their specs