Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[huth]

Error 404: care not found.

I'd prefer 503: Care unavailable.

Or 418: I'm a teapot.

[Jokubas]

After seeing parts of the community I never expected to be behind this rooting for it to go further, and the interviews detailing more of their thought process instead of just a PR blurb, I'm much more optimistic about this now. I still would have liked this to have started stronger, but I'm feeling much better about it now (I don't regret my initial reaction because it was based on precedent, not paranoia, and only time will tell how well this pans out).

I'm also a little more interested in what the next expansion will entail now. Before I was having fun with the speculation but wasn't all that excited for the announcement itself. With such a major and longstanding wish of mine starting to sort of being rolled out ahead of the expansion, maybe the expansion itself will catch me by surprise too.

[Super Dickmann]

Surprised they actually went through with it. Gameplay-wise it's been a no-brainer for a while. Storywise it hinges entirely on whether they actually use the potential they have. The factions at the end of BFA are copy-pastes of each other value-wise anyway and also have races with compatible aesthetics, so it's not like anything is lost by actually wringing some gameplay value out of it. As Ion references you can show a multitude of racial perspectives regarding this and maintain individual motive more re: groups like the Night Elves, Forsaken etc. He's right on paper too, but in practice, it removes the last barrier keeping us from World of Humancraft narratively.

[Jokubas]

Yeah, the thing that bothers me that still goes unmentioned is that, in Warcraft III, there were four factions. I don't need to be reassured that the Alliance and Horde will continue to mean something in the game even if we aren't limited by them, partially because it's sort of obvious that they will. I would like to be reassured that other forces not just be allowed to have an identity, but sometimes even an identity on the level of the Alliance and Horde, just like we had in Warcraft III.

[Edoll]

this info is quite old, but tldr

yes, dragon isles
5 zones - blue/red/green/bronze surrounding black zone in center. center has a huge tower like wyrmrest but massively bigger.
there's one very large island off coast and a few small ones.

leveling - players align with a draconic house immediately when they start expansion
basically covenants but there is no/little player power, all cosmetic. no covenant abilities.
renown, soulbinds, mission table were all in but straight copy pasted from SL. they will likely be changed and/or removed.
there is anima type power to collect. covenants have a shared pool instead of 4 separate. 'anima' can also be spent on open world powerups.
linear story for leveling, but there are 4 variants based on which house you choose (determines order that you go through leveling zones)
stories converge at 68 when you enter center zone

black dragonflight zone central tower contains the big expansion system. it's sort of like torghast but each room is a single encounter with a miniboss or group of enemies (no trash). some rooms also had a non combat event/challenge. complete a room and choose the next one from a branching tree map. you can see type of encounter + room reward (ie anima power) type before choosing. final boss at end. unsure of permanent rewards/legendaries/etc tied to this system. it was more fun than torghast in my very limited experience.

story: wrathion trying to reunite aspects, etc. healing the land (center zone) with green dragon's help. infinite dragonflight sees him changing the timeline and interferes - they are subject of first raid. in the bronze zone because timey things.

cross faction is in. group through group finder only. could talk in party/raid chat but not in open world or public channels. no xfaction guilds.

no new class
talk of adding tank specs to some pure dps classes. hunter and warlock were being worked on. doubt this will actually make it to release.

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

[Raetary]

I was arguing with a guy I know earlier because, according to him, ''this will utterly destroy immersion and RP in this game''.

Because rpers totally don't play with opposite faction players all the time and chug down 25 gallons of that flask you get in Dalaran that lets you communicate cross faction each day.

[Redzonetode]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

[Makabreska]

Because rpers totally don't play with opposite faction players all the time and chug down 25 gallons of that flask you get in Dalaran that lets you communicate cross faction each day.

Ye, people also keep forgetting that story-wise factions officially worked witch each other since vanilla. Immersion breaking my ass.

[Jokubas]

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

Not just that, it doesn't really have any selling points at all. It sounds like a stripped down Shadowlands, with a simpler Covenant system and simpler Torghast. The cross-faction instances is the only thing notable about it and that's coming in 9.2.5.

[ExiHext]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Was the most believable in my eyes anyways because of that Torghast rip-off alone. It has very little fan-service and reeks of "but why...?!?". No playerpower tied to the "covenants" sounds about right, too. And I personally would like new specs for existing classes a lot more than a new class. Not just tank specs for some, but different roles for every class, perhaps added in patches because 12 new specs for a single x.0 patch sounds like too much work.
Then again: a leak is just a leak. I don't believe anything until it is officially announced.

- - - Updated - - -

Not just that, it doesn't really have any selling points at all. It sounds like a stripped down Shadowlands, with a simpler Covenant system and simpler Torghast.

That alone makes it believable for me. Sounds like something Blizz would do.

And it is possible that they changed their minds about cross faction since the leaker got his information.

[BaumanKing]

What's the point of races joining factions now? Isn't it beneficial then to remain neutral and work with everyone?

[Luck4]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

It's a possibility, but let's hope it's just a coincidence.

[Revamp Man]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Not necessarily
If they were going cross faction it would make sense to just do instances a lot like the pvp system that is essentially the same thing

[Makabreska]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Lucky and educated guess, especially after Ion confirmed previous year they are looking into some form of cross faction.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I go to bed early, I wake up and now cross-faction grouping is official.
A bit sad this is not extending to guilds but it is still great news.

[Marlamin]

I go to bed early, I wake up and now cross-faction grouping is official.
A bit sad this is not extending to guilds but it is still great news.

I feel like this is just another thing where they implement certain expansion-level tech changes earlier to check adoption/use/major issues before expanding it wider to e.g. guilds, which requires more effort on the technical side of things, in the actual expansion.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I feel like this is just another thing where they implement certain expansion-level tech changes earlier to check adoption/use/major issues before expanding it wider to e.g. guilds, which requires more effort on the technical side of things, in the actual expansion.

I truly hope so! Cross-faction guilds are something I have wanted for a long long time!

[Pheraz]

Surprised they actually went through with it. Gameplay-wise it's been a no-brainer for a while. Storywise it hinges entirely on whether they actually use the potential they have. The factions at the end of BFA are copy-pastes of each other value-wise anyway and also have races with compatible aesthetics, so it's not like anything is lost by actually wringing some gameplay value out of it. As Ion references you can show a multitude of racial perspectives regarding this and maintain individual motive more re: groups like the Night Elves, Forsaken etc. He's right on paper too, but in practice, it removes the last barrier keeping us from World of Humancraft narratively.

I don't think that night elves Vs forsaken or night elves Vs orcs is from the table story wise. Or forsaken Vs worgen.
As you've described in one of your long posts yourself those auto-sticking two mega factions make not much sense apart from the classic orcs+trolls+tauren and humans+dwarfs/gnomes+high...uhm...void elves

[Hitei]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

It didn't even get how crossfaction works correct.

[Pheraz]

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

Which one? Sorry I've lost track. I hope not that cosmic thing with the weird zone names...