Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Black Rider]

At this point when are we thinking 10.0 will be announced?

I think Feb 2022

[Ersula]

Somehow the jailer corrupted Argus back when the legion was made because he is the jailer and a Machiavellian mastermind
Sylvanas will meet with tyrande and then we will see that she lets her live until the Anduin fight where sylvanas sacrifices herself in a cutscene or becomes the new jailer

Throughout this expansion's story we are repeatedly reminded that the maw doesn't need to exist & even the eternals who made it feel like it was a mistake. It would feel extremely misanthropic to double down on it. Now, if Sylvanas becomes the leader of the Mawsworn looking for a new purpose, that would feel more fitting.

We find out Varian’s soul survived

That would be nice, but also feel a bit of an asspull: From what I glean, Varian was utterly annihalated so he wouldn't show up in the shadowlands. Your anima can be lost but your soul can't truly be destroyed; if your essence gets destroyed your soul is lost. The soul still exists, its just can't be reached as it naturally floats away in the winds of the Twisting Nether: Which was the canon explanation for death years ago. The shadowlands aren't natural.

It feels more fitting that Garrosh & Varian simply returned to the Twisting Nether.....unable to be ruined further by Steve Danuser's writing

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,Pretty sure those trial screenshot s were fake? I mean Sylvanas' had her unarmoured model in them?

Source said he put her unarmored model where the data suggested a new model, the now revealed ranger general armor, would go. Still, why Pelegos is qualified feels unearned. He's only the Arbiter now because some Automa Oracle said he should be.

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Idk, I've seen some cool artwork of a rebuilt Silvermoon split into three sections. One for the Night Elves, one for the Void Elves, and one for the Blood Elves.

Night Elves in Silvermoon? Cute. Did we ever have a good explanation to why they didn't just live on Hyjal? What did the new tree actually do? A world tree makes them immortal & Teldrassil failed to do that. One of the many reasons why Night Elves' quest to conquer death have always seemed hypocritical.

[Tyris Flare]

Thats so disconnected from what a casual wants as the devs are IMHO. I have played both casual and mythic raiding. If I am playing casual I don’t want to farm more pets and mounts. There are already enough of them. I want to be able to finish the patch reputations /systems and maybe get some vanity in the process, but I don’t want to go farm an elite for 1% mount, real casuals don’t even know it drops to begin with. And I want the reputation to not take 1 month + of doing 1h+ of dailies to give me some crappy low ilvl epics and cosmetics, that’s insta quit thinking about it for me. The character limit is more than enough for 99% of the player base. And borrowed power or systems are pretty nice when you can make significant progress as a casual who gets big upgrades often and isn’t stuck at that super long farms for another 1% the non-casuals get stuck with. I have played mythic progression up to bfa and up to wod I had almost every achievement in the game, being in the top collectors in my server in pets, achivements mounts etc since classic. I now play casual and played 3 freaking days to catch up to 9.1.5 since I left in 9.0. Why am I not coming back until the end of 9.2? I can’t gear myself past lfr levels without going mythic or raid and it’s toxicity and crazy requirements aren’t very casual friendly, the lfr is absurdly long and boring and it’s unreliable to get gear (RNG is a big problem with wow) there and it’s still just a few ilvl above wqs. there simply isn’t a casual/solo gearing path, even the 230 ilvl archivist rep is absurdly grindy for something that doesn’t even leave you decently equipped. The reputations take so long that’s it’s simply a big no for me and while I actually like torghast and completed lvl 12 4 stars (210 ilvl and only a couple box talents but still possible to improve it) there is nothing for me there except… farming like 25 30 min+ torghasts to max the talent tree. It’s not very appealing and the rewards are pet n 1017 and mount n 403. Take for example ffxiv, you can get much closer to max ilvl going casual, and reputations take less than 10 minutes a day and there are 3 per expansion, they take around 25 days and best of all, you can level them in another class to level that class. Add that there is always some class you can level on the same character (vs wow where even reputations are lost when changing classes, I never got how people make a second character of a class they already have) and it’s easy to see what I will play until I decide to complete the 9.2 quest chains in 2-3 days at the end of the patch when the time gating is gone. Wow needs to stop thinking it needs to keep me hours and months connected to achieve anything. It needs to realize I will come back often if I can get significant progress when I play casual. Making everything take ages isn’t the way, it makes casuals quit. There is a huge real casual player base out there that is barely informed and doesn’t even use guides, mmoch or even wowhead. Ffxiv is a very good example of this, that’s why I mention it.

This wall of text is hard to read but there is some truth here.

Shamelessly plugging my sig, but players who want to spend hours and hours in housing and farming mounts and pets are not just "casual." They are casual lifestyle players, meaning that they are very engaged with the game and want to play a lot, they just don't want to do any serious competitive content. Current Korthia actually isn't horrible for them - it's a massive time sink grind that rewards playing a lot. Still, wow doesn't really serve these players as well as other games like GW2/ESO/FF or even SWTOR.

Actual casuals - casual hobbyists - are more like what you are describing and what most folks would think of as casual. Playing the game here and there, not necessarily up on news or systems, people who just want to bip in now and then. I think the game also doesn't serve these players as well as other games, but the difference isn't as stark. Frankly they play so little and so haphazardly that any game has a lot of content for them.

[Edward Wu]

I'm going to love it when all the people expecting le back to Azeroth good times world revamp get absolutely none of that and instead we get another cosmic crapshoot expansion in who-knows-where, for Danuser's 2.0 ride of fuckshittery.

There are definitely more than a few holdouts in the community trying to plug their ears to the sinking of Blizzard recently, holding out hope for 10.0 saving the game. I think this will break them, and it'll be funny.

[Varodoc]

I'm going to love it when all the people expecting le back to Azeroth good times world revamp get absolutely none of that and instead we get another cosmic crapshoot expansion in who-knows-where, for Danuser's 2.0 ride of fuckshittery.

There are definitely more than a few holdouts in the community trying to plug their ears to the sinking of Blizzard recently, holding out hope for 10.0 saving the game. I think this will break them, and it'll be funny.

Huh? People still think there will be a world revamp? When both the EK and Kalimdor books reinforce the Cataclysm status quo? Lol.

I subscribe to the Dragon Isles expansion, if anything because they were already mentioned in BfA, Wrathion (the one looking for them) is missing, and they tie perfectly with a reborn N'Zoth (N'Zoth was the master of Deathwing who caused the dragons to become mortals). When asked if N'Zoth was dead Danuser, having the subtlety of a truck, gave a non-answer and warned not to forget that N'Zoth is a master of illusions and that we didn't fight him on Azeroth.

No by the way this has nothing to do with the sales on the dragon mounts.

Dragon Isles seems to be the most likely, and since nothing screams "high fantasy" more than dragons (see Skyrim), it seems like a logical step after the train wreck that is FillerLands.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Surprised to not see a single one leak the Retail Survey with Player Housing. I guess Retail players are either too loyal or too few got the Survey who want to leak.

Just hearsay of the questions in it, but nothing else.

[Edward Wu]

Huh? People still think there will be a world revamp? When both the EK and Kalimdor books reinforce the Cataclysm status quo? Lol.

I subscribe to the Dragon Isles expansion, if anything because they were already mentioned in BfA, Wrathion (the one looking for them) is missing, and they tie perfectly with a reborn N'Zoth (N'Zoth was the master of Deathwing who caused the dragons to become mortals). When asked if N'Zoth was dead Danuser, having the subtlety of a truck, gave a non-answer and warned not to forget that N'Zoth is a master of illusions and that we didn't fight him on Azeroth.

No by the way this has nothing to do with the sales on the dragon mounts.

Dragon Isles seems to be the most likely, and since nothing screams "high fantasy" more than dragons (see Skyrim), it seems like a logical step after the train wreck that is FillerLands.

Yep, you'd be surprised. Well, not here but more than a few people in communities outside this place still definitely hope for a world revamp.

There's just no way lol. COVID and all the other stuff annihilated their productivity. They are definitely behind and something huge like a world revamp is way beyond them now.

[Varodoc]

Yep, you'd be surprised. Well, not here but more than a few people in communities outside this place still definitely hope for a world revamp.

There's just no way lol. COVID and all the other stuff annihilated their productivity. They are definitely behind and something huge like a world revamp is way beyond them now.

I thought there would be a world revamp because Ion was basically saying it in the interviews.

But now after the Kalimdor novel there is no way.

What Ion said is that they go back to stories on Azeroth, what landmasses are left on Azeroth? The Dragon Isles, the banana island (lol), and?

Really it just kind of makes sense to have an expansion set in the Dragon Isles, although I'm not sure what to expect from it since they only appeared in that one barely-finished map from Vanilla with a giant Old God-looking temple...

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Oh right, the giant Old God-looking temple from the Dragon Isles:



How convenient, that this largely unexplored landmass was meant to have an Old God-looking temple (octopus-looking temple to be exact), it sure would be the perfect way to reintroduce N'Zoth

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Dragon Isles is so vague and the box villain is unknown. Will it be a Alliance Themed Garrosh Villain that will be the main villain?¨

Again, it just feels too much like Pandaria and Blizzard will just stumble into a villain again.

[Ersula]

Huh? People still think there will be a world revamp? When both the EK and Kalimdor books reinforce the Cataclysm status quo? Lol.

With the timewalking system they can keep the Cataclysm zones & have a revamped world. Since storywise it doesn't make sense to make a timewalking version of shadowlands: You have to level through shadowlands so when you hit 60, you return to a new EK & Kalimdor. Even without a time skip, almost 10 years have passed in game since cataclysm.

[Varodoc]

Dragon Isles is so vague and the box villain is unknown. Will it be a Alliance Themed Garrosh Villain that will be the main villain?¨

Again, it just feels too much like Pandaria and Blizzard will just stumble into a villain again.

Either N'Zoth or a Void Dragon (ala Vexiona) can serve as the box villain, not too differently from Deathwing in Cataclysm:



Which does make for a badass cover.

The story can revolve around a reborn N'Zoth (either reborn via the Blade of the Black Empire or we straight up never killed him in the alternate dimension associated to visions called "Ny'alotha"), who is threatening the Dragon Isles, trying to create an army of Void-twisted dragons, or looking for the next Plot McGuffin button, or something like that. It really doesn't matter.

I would also like to remind the gentlemen and gentlewomen here that the Dragon Isles were mentioned in BfA by Wrathion's agent and that Wrathion was "looking for it", and it was never revealed "what" he was "looking for" in the "Dragon Isles", or why he was so interested in those isles in the first place:

Hello, I was told to expect you, Kindly hand over the scale.

We will, of course, compensate you.

First in information. Have you heard of the Dragon Isles? Few have, and fewer have been there.

We have not found others of the master's kin... forthcoming in information.

Should you uncover anything further in your travels, we will be awaiting a visit, with payment in kind.

And second, in this Azerite you are seeking. Here, a hefty sum for your troubles.

If Wrathion was looking for the Dragon Isles, why not N'Zoth? And could they both be looking for the same thing, what is that thing, and for what purpose?

Easiest expansion to set up, the build-up is there.

And I will gladly welcome the inevitable Ren'dorei screentime that comes with more Void-related storylines

[Ersula]

There's just no way lol. COVID and all the other stuff annihilated their productivity. They are definitely behind and something huge like a world revamp is way beyond them now.

I think they sacrificed Shadowlands patch content specifically so they didn't hurt the next expansion. Working from home shouldn't have hurt productivity as much as it seems Shadowlands was.

[Raetary]

The box cover hasn't contained the main villain since Legion.

They'd probably just put Wrathion or Alexstrasza on it.

Edit: Actually i just realized that the cover contained a non-villain more often than it did a villain.

[Makorus]

rambling

OK but N'zoth is dead.

[therumblings]

OK but N'zoth is dead.

No, N'zoth is toooootally alive all along and this is just part of his master plan It's definitely not copium for WoW's poor writing.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Copium is now the new wow discussion buzzword of the year.

[Varodoc]

OK but N'zoth is dead.

Then Danuser has succeeded in tricking you. You were tricked by Danuser Read this post and you'll realize you've been tricked by Danuser:

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...underestimated

I will admit that I expected a more refined reply, but oh well.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Surprised to not see a single one leak the Retail Survey with Player Housing. I guess Retail players are either too loyal or too few got the Survey who want to leak.

Just hearsay of the questions in it, but nothing else.

Most of the survey’s only get questions leaked when people can use them to put wow in a bad light like when they put out one asking what games people were interested in which included things like mind craft and people just post the part with FFXIV to make it seem like blizzard was worried.

It’s likely people weren’t able to make them jump from player housing to game dead so they just passed over the opportunity.

[Dracullus]

Copium is now the new wow discussion buzzword of the year.

Funny that people apply this word only when someone is or appear gullible about current/future game. When you say ridicolous shit about older expacs, sometimes even verified by Classic, suddenly it's OK.

Like WoW story. I don't understand how people can praise TBC/Wrath and shit on BfA/Legion on same breath.

[Makorus]

Then Danuser has succeeded in tricking you. You were tricked by Danuser Read this post and you'll realize you've been tricked by Danuser:

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...underestimated

I will admit that I expected a more refined reply, but oh well.

The Visions don't take place in Nyalotha.

N'zoth was underwhelming because he was the weakest Old God that was only known for manipulating stronger people into doing what he wants. He was just as whelming as any other Old God.