Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Berkilak]

What are the responsbilities that impact their broadning of class choices?

Equitable treatment and tolerable balance.

[Blayze]

I'd like it if our dragonsworn start out looking like normal playable races, then manifest more and more drakonid features as we level, slowly becoming bulkier. Would look horrifying on goblins and the like, though, if they got taller as a result.

[Syegfryed]

You guys know what would be fun - but ultimately impossible - with systems like Covenants or future Dragonflights?

You're given a screen with the choices you can make, but in the end you give the game the middle-finger and walk away. Imagine that: Neutrality.

Yet when you have player progression and power tied to such systems, it's nigh impossible to choose, well, nothing. Not to mention it could be implicitly seen as a "Screw you" to Blizzard

That would mean they had to do, basically, 6 "covenants", the neutral one, in this expansion i think is a no, but another one, with less "covenants" so they can pull out the neutral one would work out

[Izalla]

Just because someone pointed out the comparison to the Chromie Time selection UI and the covenant selection UI against that five draginflights one, both the official ones have a way to close out of it without selecting anything. This supposed dragonflight selection gives you no way to back out and do anything else before choosing. Ignoring everything else about how fake and unprofessional it looks, that is a red flag to me for something a fake leaker wouldn't have thought important enough to include but obviously actually matters.

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There is also an encrypted IGC 9.2.5 in the maw. This is about Sylvanas again, I thought her story was over.

You can always hope it is just a flood of souls being released from the maw with no Sylvanas in sight

[Soikona]

I think single spec classes would be obnoxious to play, and it's not like you can change your class if you hate it. If it gets hit with a nerf-bat one patch you won't have the option of switching specs and staying on the same character. That character would just suck now.

I play ret as my main. I might jump on my shammy healer and push keys with it, but always higher with my ret. Nothing wrong with playing an underperforming spec if you are good at it.

[Izalla]

A lot of seeds then to be rather egg shaped.

They are basically plant eggs anyway

[Sondrelk]

I play ret as my main. I might jump on my shammy healer and push keys with it, but always higher with my ret. Nothing wrong with playing an underperforming spec if you are good at it.

The standards for this is still different from an official AAA game to what is essentially a fan-made game.
And balance is one thing. It's the long stretches where maybe one class gets almost completely ignored, maybe just getting a few token hotfixes.
Imagine for instance if you had Legion, but only half the classes actually got order halls, and only a select few got unique weapons.

[Cosmic Janitor]

They're gonna struggle making specs with multiple Dragonflights at their disposal and you want to tell me they want to make one into three?

Yeah, sounds awful. Besides the red's are probably the most boring flight right next to the black dragons, which are pretty much just quintessential fantasy dragons where someone forgot to change the template even a tiny bit. I doubt healing fire is enough to carry a whole class.

[Khaza-R]

There is also an encrypted IGC 9.2.5 in the maw. This is about Sylvanas again, I thought her story was over.

Hmmmm. Could be the start of the whole Maldraxxus invading Northrend thing that kicks of expansion.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I agree with this assessment. In addition, looking at the localization (i mentioned this some 30 pages or so back) it would not make sense to have an evoker as a class as it does not translate well into other languages. Evoker as is, is just a mage under a different name.

Yea, if they wanted to explore magic schools then it would better to go with the others, like abjuration, transmutation or go straight to to arificer as that bone has more fantasy to it than making another slightly different mage.

[Nymrohd]

What are the responsbilities that impact their broadning of class choices?

Every additional class (or even spec) means that any spec or class specific content added requires more work. Since Legion we had evolving systems all of which add some class or spec specific variance in every patch. The more you broaden it, the more you need to make. With tier sets back each class requires more art as well.

[Enrif]

The Winter Queen will give us as a gift the seed for the new Teldrassil.

My kudos for a cinematics that will show Ysera and the Winter Queen give to us the seed... with the emotional moment where for a while, through the Emerald Dream, mother and daughter will be able to see each other.

It remains to be clarified if the seed needs the Aspect's blessing, in which case there is a little problem to be solved first... unless Elune decides otherwise.

Could be cool if we can see Elune and all the Dragon Aspects blessing the new World Tree... as conclusion of Shadowlands.

And just that we have a reasonable connection to a dragon based expansion.

Aspects are there to help the seed of the new world tree. Something happens, queue next expansion big bad.

[puddypounce]

Every additional class (or even spec) means that any spec or class specific content added requires more work. Since Legion we had evolving systems all of which add some class or spec specific variance in every patch. The more you broaden it, the more you need to make. With tier sets back each class requires more art as well.

Blizzard has been hiring class design and balance staff to bulk up the team

[Hypester]

The fact that Teldrassil or nelves are missing from the text leak is pretty damning against it.

[huth]

And just that we have a reasonable connection to a dragon based expansion.

Aspects are there to help the seed of the new world tree. Something happens, queue next expansion big bad.

To be honest, i'd rather the next expansion doesn't have a big bad and we're just kinda running around as a sort of hero's vacation.

You know, squashing some upstart evil cults before they really get started, exploring old ruins because they're there, stuff like that. Nothing serious, just us putzing around because hey, we're the strongest people in the world, try and stop us.

[Kiivar86]

Given how a lot of people freaked out about how "no central big bad" for MoP (which was a dumb reaction), I doubt we'll ever go back to that sort of thing. Though that is a pity, as it would let some things percolate, story wise.

[Izalla]

Given how a lot of people freaked out about how "no central big bad" for MoP (which was a dumb reaction), I doubt we'll ever go back to that sort of thing. Though that is a pity, as it would let some things percolate, story wise.

People also recognize MoP as being an excellent expansion these days so people would actually be happy for a MoP like situation rather than freaking out over it.

[Mace]

People also recognize MoP as being an excellent expansion these days so people would actually be happy for a MoP like situation rather than freaking out over it.

It's too late to go back tbh, they have replicated manyaspects of MoP since it left, 8.3 was one of the things, as was 8.2, espeically Mechagon

Frankly it won't be enough, and they'd get heavy criticism by just repeating it - at this stage they'd likely just wait for it to roll back with WoW classic.

[Trazzle]

Ooooh, 5 claw packs to show off? Maybe 5 available races? Goblin, Gnome, Mechagnome, Vulperia… Dwarf? Just a few more days!!

[Gloriandus]

And just that we have a reasonable connection to a dragon based expansion.

Aspects are there to help the seed of the new world tree. Something happens, queue next expansion big bad.

Makes sense with the theme of "choosing renewal"; double meaning with "renewing" WoW after two mediocre expansions!