Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Santandame]

Wrathion was involved in a questline in the Arakkoa zone if I recall correctly, he is mentioned in the journal of Admiral Taylor. Plus he could be seen in Khadghar's tower in 6.2. Also he worked with Kairoz to send Garrosh to Draenor. But yes, for sure he was more involved but they cut it, as in Legion, where if my memory serves me right he had a questline in Higmountain that did not make the cut.

Wrathion was also hanging out, outside Khadgar's tower in Talador during the conclusion of the legendary ring questline. He's watching the interaction with Khadgar, then he flies off in his whelp form when we spot him.

[Izalla]

Wrathion was involved in a questline in the Arakkoa zone if I recall correctly, he is mentioned in the journal of Admiral Taylor. Plus he could be seen in Khadghar's tower in 6.2. Also he worked with Kairoz to send Garrosh to Draenor. But yes, for sure he was more involved but they cut it, as in Legion, where if my memory serves me right he had a questline in Higmountain that did not make the cut.

I know he was mentioned in Admiral Taylor's journal and that he is the one who was behind everything leading to WoD, but I meant an actual appearance. I must have forgotten about the tower thing from 6.2 because I only remember references to him and his involvement and never an actual appearance of his NPC in the game.

And yeah he was supposed to be involved with the black dragon stuff but he got replaced by Ebonhorn. I might be conflating something from BFA with Legion but I swear I remember seeing one of his followers in a cave in Highmountain (or was it a dungeon?).

Anyway as to the original point of the comment I was originally replying to, there have indeed always been dragon things going on. It's more the sheer amount of dragon breadcrumbs being left right now that is causing the speculation. A dragon reference is one thing, even a handful of references, but we have a potential dragon related plot being introduced (Wrathion searching for the Dragon Isles) as well as the datamined dragon mount. That just causes every dragon reference or appearance to be fuel for that fire. I think at this point it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Are dragons/Dragon Isles next? Probably, but they could easily still just be laying the groundwork for when they do become relevant. It's been a few expacs now though and that's how things have gone lately (build up in the background for a couple expacs before being used). I think the main thing here is the datamined mount. The fact that it seems to be a green dragon is the only thing that kinda makes things iffy, because green dragon could be related to Emerald Dream related stuff, whereas a red or black dragon would be a dead giveaway. I don't think it will be "Lifelands" though, or rather I hope it is not. But a revamp/nature growth and healed Azeroth scenario makes me happy.

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Wrathion was also hanging out, outside Khadgar's tower in Talador during the conclusion of the legendary ring questline. He's watching the interaction with Khadgar, then he flies off in his whelp form when we spot him.

Oooooh okay yeah that does sound familiar. The whelp flying away part specifically.

[Calfredd]

We're not 100% on that either, though. LivingWorld could be an internal name for adding more flourishes and structure to things like weather, day/night cycles, etc. that influence perhaps mob spawns, events, etc. It's not necessarily guaranteed to be a major feature, though it could be.



Come to think of it, did anything come of the Chromie death storyline?

Not just yet. Even though it was supposed to take place in early BfA canonically.

I was hoping for it to be teasing infinite dragonflight stuff but we've yet to see it.
Interested how they'll actually have the infinite dragonflight be created, now that the last old god is dead. (Unless Nozdormu has just been bottling everything up and just decides to crack next xpac)

The only thing I can remember are the theories that the one behind wanting Chromie dead were either Chromie herself a la her own version of Murozond, or the player themselves because of the item you can some times get: https://www.wowhead.com/item=151761/scribbled-ravings

"The handwriting on the scroll is jagged and frantic, yet strangely familiar."

kill the dragon
kill the dragon
kill the
DRAGON

it's not a gnome, it's a DRAGON

not even a good dragon

SLAY THE DRAGON

crossed the timeways one too many times, didn't you? made a few enemies? maybe caused a paradox you couldn't reconcile?

the demons, the elementals, the humans and orcs... they're all on MY SIDE NOT YOURS

NOW YOU'VE GONE AND DONE IT, WHELP

But again, these were just theories and not anything definitive.

[Revamp Man]

Legion hints started in MoP.

Shadowlands hints started in Legion.

What shadowlands hints

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Yup, beat me to it.

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Here's a hint for MoP that popped up in WotLK;

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Pan...andaren%20Monk.

Not every pet is a hint
In that case Dragonsworn we’re hinted at in wrath too

[Izalla]

What shadowlands hints

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Not every pet is a hint
In that case Dragonsworn we’re hinted at in wrath too

Probably the death stuff and Helya making a deal with Sylvanas we never knew the nature of until Shadowlands. Oh and almost forgot the whisper that made Vol'jin put Sylvanas in charge.

[Teriz]

Not every pet is a hint
In that case Dragonsworn we’re hinted at in wrath too

Not every pet, no. However, a pet that pretty much telegraphs the next WoW class and expansion (Cataclysm was already announced) complete with a letter from Chen Stormstout (whom we had never heard from directly in WoW until that point)? Yeah, it was a hint.

[Three Faced Goddess]

A post that doesn't get a lot of traction doesn't make it a bad/worthless post. If anything it actually adds something vs. the useless back and forth (which isn't speculation at all regardless of what some try to frame it as; it's arguing).

--

Meanwhile, Blizzard has put the last patch of the expansion on the PTR with a lot of new hints/unexplained things that are actually deserving of speculation/analysis.

What's happening in Tirisfal? Why is Calia involved? There's a LOT of VO and things encrypted there.

Is the way between SL <-> Azeroth canonically wide open now? Khadgar popped up as well as a (now removed) quest where we give a tour of Stormwind to creatures from the Shadowlands.

Why is there another encrypted Anduin model?

What's the encrypted item set for?

Why are there still two encrypted achievements from 9.2? Are those for next reset's content?

I can go on, but hopefully it's some food for thought that looks towards the future instead of the past.

I brought up encrypted Tirisfal and Calia model I don't know how many pages back, but I doubt it was seen amongst the arguing. From what little we can glean from what was datamined last week from 9.2.5, the Scourge seems to be a serious problem still as it is referenced at the end of both known heritage questlines. Another thing that intrigues me is that they've encrypted multiple things associated with Tirisfal and Calia Menethil, yet they didn't encrypt the heritage questlines for DID and Belves. This implies that the encrypted content is important and may give away what the next expansion pack is about.

I also mentioned how the mystery dark ranger questline keeps getting updated which is odd since it's been in the database for years with the occasional update. Most likely this post was seen as me trying to push Dark Rangers, but that wasn't my intent at all. I did bring dark rangers up, yes, but that was because there were a group of them with Calia at the end of BFA and that there's still strings hanging from that. I was trying to point out how it's interesting that this questline was added in the PTR for patch 8.1 and implied Scarlet activity before the Scarlet Pamphlets were datamined.

Then the pamphlets came to light containing disparagements against Calia and Anduin with mentions of a "True heir" implying yet again, the Scarlets were up to something. Then Tirisfal's story ends with Calia taking the Kal'dorei Dark Rangers and Kitala Starshadow under her wing to counsel. I'm wondering if they pick their plan back up either during 9.2.5 or the pre-patch. Of course I'm not excluding dragons from being part or a major player in the next expansion. I think that the next expansion might focus on recovery and rebuilding while dealing with zone specific conflicts.

[Izalla]

Not every pet, no. However, a pet that pretty much telegraphs the next WoW class complete with a letter from Chen Stormstout (whom we had never heard from directly in WoW until that point)? Yeah, it was a hint.

I don't know if I would count that for MoP as a whole as we don't know for sure that they had decided on Pandaria at the time (still in the middle of working on Cata stuff and all that). But, if that is the first mention of them calling it a monk instead of a brewmaster, it definitely shows they were thinking about and had decided on how they planned to implement the class eventually. So less of a hint of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and more of a hint that they planned to add Pandaren monks.

[Teriz]

I don't know if I would count that for MoP as a whole as we don't know for sure that they had decided on Pandaria at the time (still in the middle of working on Cata stuff and all that). But, if that is the first mention of them calling it a monk instead of a brewmaster, it definitely shows they were thinking about and had decided on how they planned to implement the class eventually. So less of a hint of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and more of a hint that they planned to add Pandaren monks.

Well, Cataclysm was already announced when the Pandaren Monk pet came out. I'd have to believe that they were already in the planning stages of MoP at that point.

[Izalla]

Well, Cataclysm was already announced when the Pandaren Monk pet came out.

Yeah it was announced but the expac didn't come out until December 2010 right? So they were still in the middle of Cata development. I assume the next expac was still an idea and an intent at the time rather than something that had fully committed to and had done concrete work on yet.

[Padwarle]

Not to start any hype or anything, but I noticed that my Shadowlands Beta license is gone now, though it was there last week. Some clean up, perhaps?

[Teriz]

Yeah it was announced but the expac didn't come out until December 2010 right? So they were still in the middle of Cata development. I assume the next expac was still an idea and an intent at the time rather than something that had fully committed to and had done concrete work on yet.

I'm willing to bet they were fully committed at that point, and were in the planning stages. I have the MoP artbook, and some of the art from it was dated in 2010.

[Izalla]

I'm willing to bet they were fully committed at that point, and were in the planning stages. I have the MoP artbook, and some of the art from it was dated in 2010.

If the art is dated to 2010 and the pandaren pet was released at the end of 2009, I'd say my point of "an idea and an intent" is still valid. They probably weren't much further than that at the time and it was still possible to push it back another expac and make something else first post-Cata if they had a sudden change of heart. But it's obvious they intended the monk class and pandaren race to be in the game when they made that pet.

[Teriz]

If the art is dated to 2010 and the pandaren pet was released at the end of 2009, I'd say my point of "an idea and an intent" is still valid. They probably weren't much further than that at the time and it was still possible to push it back another expac and make something else first post-Cata if they had a sudden change of heart. But it's obvious they intended the monk class and pandaren race to be in the game when they made that pet.

Maybe. I think it's kind of pointless to guess since we don't know the exact timeline. What we do know is that in late 2009 after the announcement of Cataclysm, Blizzard released a Pandaren Monk pet in its store, and the pet included a letter from Chen Stormstout. 2 years later we get the announcement of Mists of Pandaria with a Pandaren Monk class and Chen Stormstout on the cover.

[Izalla]

Maybe. I think it's kind of pointless to guess since we don't know the exact timeline. What we do know is that in late 2009 after the announcement of Cataclysm, Blizzard released a Pandaren Monk pet in its store, and the pet included a letter from Chen Stormstout. 2 years later we get the announcement of Mists of Pandaria with a Pandaren Monk class and Chen Stormstout on the cover.

Hence my last sentence. It's obvious they intended the monk class and the pandaren race to be added to the game as early as midway through Wrath.

Now when it comes to the store mount issue... it's kind of a chicken and egg situation. For the manasaber they must have come up with that mob for Suramar first and then utilized it for the store. Whereas the fey dragon didn't have any actual tie to Draenor and comes off more as "they made the mount, they took advantage of an already existing model for a Shadowmoon Valley mob". We really have no way of knowing at the moment if the cat or the phoenix were made for the new expac and then used as store mounts (and in the case of the phoenix, also used for a 9.2 mob), or if they were made for the store and will almost certainly be utilized for mobs in 10.0. But both have a warmth/sun/fire theme to them, so I'm putting my money on them being related to the next expac first, and store and random 9.2 mob second.

[Marlamin]

Not to start any hype or anything, but I noticed that my Shadowlands Beta license is gone now, though it was there last week. Some clean up, perhaps?

Could definitely be prep! Maybe wowdev3 is 10.0 after all and they're just using the 96.0 version numbers to hide it. Would be cool to have something go into alpha/beta soon after an announcement for once. Could see a Q4 release if it does. That is a lot of ifs, though.

[Three Faced Goddess]

This leak keeps getting more and more interesting.

I would love playable sun worshipping cat people.

[TriHard]

I get not liking Player Housing, but the idea that it wouldn't "work" is so lol-worthy to me.

As if a considerable amount of players wouldn't spend hours and hours crafting and decorating their houses.

I love player housing, I was huge in that section in Wildstar and FF14 and even did comms for people.

But I just don't have faith that the WoW team would be able to do right by player housing, it needs to be AT LEAST as good as FF14's system and I just don't think the engine can handle it to be fair.

[Teriz]

Hence my last sentence. It's obvious they intended the monk class and the pandaren race to be added to the game as early as midway through Wrath.

Now when it comes to the store mount issue... it's kind of a chicken and egg situation. For the manasaber they must have come up with that mob for Suramar first and then utilized it for the store. Whereas the fey dragon didn't have any actual tie to Draenor and comes off more as "they made the mount, they took advantage of an already existing model for a Shadowmoon Valley mob". We really have no way of knowing at the moment if the cat or the phoenix were made for the new expac and then used as store mounts (and in the case of the phoenix, also used for a 9.2 mob), or if they were made for the store and will almost certainly be utilized for mobs in 10.0. But both have a warmth/sun/fire theme to them, so I'm putting my money on them being related to the next expac first, and store and random 9.2 mob second.

I believe the cat is for the next expansion. It reminds me of the red dragonflight and Alexstraza for some reason;



Also it's paws seem to be on fire. If someone said design a "cat for dragons", that would be it.

[PhillyCheese]

Then the pamphlets came to light containing disparagements against Calia and Anduin with mentions of a "True heir" implying yet again, the Scarlets were up to something. Then Tirisfal's story ends with Calia taking the Kal'dorei Dark Rangers and Kitala Starshadow under her wing to counsel. I'm wondering if they pick their plan back up either during 9.2.5 or the pre-patch. Of course I'm not excluding dragons from being part or a major player in the next expansion. I think that the next expansion might focus on recovery and rebuilding while dealing with zone specific conflicts.

Tirisfal's story didn't end, it just got put on pause like everything on Azeroth for two IRL years while devs completed revampy stuff.

The amount of people that think stuff like the Scarlets or Dragons got "dropped" blows my mind because its obvious that in some respects Shadowlands is story filler. They didn't even allow for heritage quests showing what was going on in Azeroth.