Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[TheFirstOnes]

Anyone else super hyped about how the Shadowlands story will end + the 10.0 story?

I am tbh…

I just want to fight Sargeras one day, explore the realms of Order and Disorder at their max, as the Nether seems to be but a veil or akin to the first layer of the planes of Disorder, etc. I would imagine every force has a heart workshop with something relating to the design of the Pattern, like Zereth Umbra can have lots of light and Shadow connections with tentacles, proto bugs and a proto-version of the Void Lords in a chaotic painting/flesh thingy (which would fit the different designs of Order/Light/Death having bots and structured printing engines that aid the rhythm of the first ones’ designs and the other 3 having more free designs that are based off creativity and ideals based on what the Automa should provide based off the boundless thoughts of the First Ones, which are apparently beings so crazy that their cycles of Time, Destiny, Will, Eternity, Infinity, and the laws of each force and their formed existence of everything and nothing etc are all encompassed and tiny compared to them, their thoughts alone have no beginning, and the player even realizes “oh shit, they ARE the beings that gave each force their being, and they gave a portion of themselves to make these forces provide form, even fundamentals such as Light and Shadow are encompassed by their thoughts alone, the First Ones are that crazy…

Hell I don’t even think the First Ones in of themselves have an identity, as we simply call them the First Ones cause…well…they came first and willed it all in a built design that is apparently so crazy, even when a 7th power rises like Zovaal to try and exist outside the pattern (cause, let’s face it, Domination seems to be that power, as it doesn’t follow the traditional laws of Death, and it came from the language of the First Ones), the First Ones simply narrate us to win, as that’s how it is loool

[Grimbold21]

Dear god I want a revamp.

You'll get one, but it'll be gradual, it's time-gated between bi weekly or monthly releases.

[micwini]

A disgruntled senior level designer at Blizzard who recently resigned, and is in my guild, mentioned this during one of our raid nights last week, to myself and 2 other officers. Their identity is known to us, so we know from their Linkedin that they until recently worked on World of Warcraft.

The expansion will be unveiled in the first half of March on a YouTube Livestream. Patch 9.2 is set to release at the end of February. 9.2 has multiple cinematics. The final one will be available in week 2 with The Jailer. The expansion is revealed 2 days later, the following Thursday.


Expansion name: Rise of the Aspects


New continent: The Dragon Isles
- 5 zones thematic to the different aspects. Main story in each zone are their return to power.
- One zone is fully dedicated to end-game content, ala Suramar. This is the zone thematic to the Black Dragonflight. Wrathion is a central character here. This is also the location of Deathwing’s Corruption which the story will dive into. The first raid is located in this zone, a massive Old God Temple, ala Stormsong Valley, but larger. N'Zoth did not die and is in "the background".

New PvE System: Lairs - procedurally generated cavern lairs that will feature a variety of different bosses to fight. There are powers similar to Torghast. It was explained as a “boss-rush mode”. There are very few packs of normal mobs. The core gameplay is heavily focused on boss fights. The system has a Challenge Mode style for cosmetics rewards - think Mage Tower, but several bosses and unique powers.

New Class: Tinkerer, Mail class, 2 specs, Ranged DPS with Turrets and other gimmicks. Mechasuit for Tanking.

Keypoints:
• Level cap increased to 70.
• All Timewalking zones becomes 1-60. Shadowlands is added to Chromie.
• Partial Old-World Revamp. Notable zones that are overhauled include Tanaris and Twillight Highlands. These will have content related to max level and players will visit them briefly during questing. The Infinite Dragonflight has a major presence in Tanaris. Gadgetzan is updated, it is larger quest hub, but not as portrayed in Hearthstone. The Cultists are once again a major player in Twillight Highlands.
• Other zones such as Elwynn Forest, Durotar, Westfall, Duskwood remains the same but with improved graphics. Many of the old buildings have been updated to modern graphics. This includes Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
• Cross-faction end-game gameplay. Raiding, Dungeons, PvP, and other end-game content can be done in groups of both factions. Cannot be cross-faction grouped in Warmode. Opposing faction cities are still hostile.
• Major professions overhaul - large focus, multiple new developers recruited specifically for this.


Conclusion of Shadowlands (9.2.5 and Pre-Patch):
- Using the Forge of the First Ones, the Jailer successfully drains Azeroth, severely injuring the planet. The wounds that were sealed have reemerged and Azeroth is on the brink of dying - again.
- After Zovaal the Jailer has been defeated, The First Ones (3) appear in the cinematic, resetting Zovaal to his original, deactivated form. He is not dead, and will return in the future.
- There will be an epilogue in the form of 9.2.5 featuring a short questline centered around Tyrande “forgiving” Sylvanas, and Sylvanas looking for Nathanos. The patch will also include minor quality of life additions and Timewalking for BFA dungeons (incl. M+), and the Battle for D’azalor raid.
- Anduin is “saved”, but will not be himself. As the heroes of Azeroth return, the Stormwind Nobles are skeptical of their King, instead giving their loyalty to Turalyon. Anduin will feel defeated and depressed about everything he did during his domination and will not fight it. Genn Greymane and Matthias Shaw is acting on Anduin’s behalf to restore him to the throne. Tension in the Alliance is growing.
- The Scarlet Crusade is significantly growing in power in the background, Turalyon plays a big part in this.

This is all I managed to get notes for - everything was happening quickly, and we were not warned that they were going to spill the beans. Believe it if you will, the reveal is just 2 months away.

Another one! Thoughts?
IMO it seems too much 'could be true' to be true.

[Dracullus]

Another one! Thoughts?

[TBCCLOL]

What a guy!

thank you

[Graden]

As opposed to what....not having a home? They need to have a city of their own since they are without one since BFA.

I'm with you, but...I doubt it. I have been waiting to retake Gilneas since Cataclysm. Despite Genn's promise, as well as other 'hints' over the years, I'm convinced we're never returning to that place. I'm almost 30 now, I lost all hope.

So imagine how long it'd take for the Night Elves to get a new home, if ever.

[infinitemeridian]

As long as there's either housing or a new class / spec(s), I'll be happy (along with other things like fun systems, good world design, no power grind, m+ actual updates, etc.) I'll be happy. Preferably both.

[Revamp Man]

nearly a week since you could farm the rares in raid and get 50 rep + fishing 25 rep + pet battles + mob farming


so i was already flying instead of waiting the mobile game research like you will in 9.2

So you did every daily
Every ankoan quest
Every rare
Every pet battle
And unlocked it faster than literally any other player since even as a human with the rep increase you only had about 2.5k Mechagon rep at most including the daily mob grind package


A time gate isn’t a great system but sitting here going on about “oh it’s a mobile game now” is retarded especially since there’s nothing to do with flying in the barebones 9.2 zone

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Anyone else super hyped about how the Shadowlands story will end + the 10.0 story?

I don't know, I'm hyped to see what the Zovaal Cinematic is. But, if the Zovaal Cinematic doesn't satisfy all the tomfoolery they've been doing then I have no faith in 10.0.

Then again I believe 10.0 should be a building block and a slowing down of the narrative to a core basis to build stories from that people can naturally follow and not BFA: Cosmic Edition or Dragon Isles (context being Cataclysm Ending and Wrathion storyline that are both old storylines that new players would not understand)

[Nyel]

I'll come here each week now and just ask if there's been any substantial news / leaks about 10.0, because there's really nothing going on in this expansion.

So: did I miss something in the last days besides some fabricated leaks?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I'll come here each week now and just ask if there's been any substantial news / leaks about 10.0, because there's really nothing going on in this expansion.

So: did I miss something in the last days besides some fabricated leaks?

Zovaal had a Heart of Azeroth clone other than that. No not really. We're still in the same waiting for release date phase for a long while now and then waiting for the post-Zovaal Cinematic environment.

[Nyel]

Zovaal had a Heart of Azeroth clone other than that. No not really. We're still in the same waiting for release date phase for a long while now and then waiting for the post-Zovaal Cinematic environment.

Thank you for the update. Nice weekend for y'all!

[Ersula]

I mean, both Forsaken en Night elves could have there own big campaign about rebuilding and this could be spread out over the duration of several patches.

According to this cutscene Lordaeron has already been rebuilt. So the "new race bios" on the official website aren't even up to date to the end of BFA.

[Alanar]

According to this cutscene Lordaeron has already been rebuilt. So the "new race bios" on the official website aren't even up to date to the end of BFA.

Its conflicting to say the least.. the book says something else entirely.. nothing happened.

Anyway, it was just my own view on it.. i dont care so much, I will wait and see how they ruin it.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Why should Teldrassil be fixed? Why are night elves entitled to a big fat tree?

It'd be an easy way to get rid of probably the biggest reason a 1-60 revamp is required.

Then just scrub off Undercity and boom, status quo reclaimed.

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World of Warcraft: Landswalker

Can't wait for the inevitable "The whole thing is just a big ripoff of Endwlker" leak.


Sadly, knowing Blizz, it'll probably be the most accurate one too.

[Ersula]

It'd be an easy way to get rid of probably the biggest reason a 1-60 revamp is required.

The 9.0 1-50 revamp was pretty much the only thing people were universally positive about. Unless you mean the zones themselves, I'd bet on it only being a new azeroth for 60-70 players. The Devs regarded the cataclysm revamp as necessary but definitely hurt Cataclysm's endgame development.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

According to this cutscene Lordaeron has already been rebuilt. So the "new race bios" on the official website aren't even up to date to the end of BFA.

Wait I just rewatched this and I really can't find anything that says that Lordaeron city has been rebuilt, am I missing something? Or are you talking about the Tirisfal Glades as a whole? AFAIK, the eastern part including Deathkneel and Calson State was never damaged in the alliance siege or by the blight, so they have remained forsaken holdings all along.

[Chickat]

Its not that bad as people put it. Thats as much as I can say.

It had potential, just lacked content.

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Seems pretty unlikely. Any theoretical revamp will involve a bunch of racial zones and it doesn't make much sense to not go ahead and throw a 1-5/10 questline in there. That is, you're still going to have Elwynn, Durotar, Mulgore, Gilneas*, Dun Morogh, etc. and those zones are very well suited to dealing with minor threats and providing a hand to the associated race, which makes them perfect zones for a low level character to get a sense of who that group is.

At the point where you're already designing that sort of minor-threat quest zone with heavy racial identity, why wouldn't you just go ahead and start a race there?

The problem with implementing new full-fledged races was that it involves making entirely new zones with that 10-20 levels of questing, but the situation here is that you have a bunch of races who already have those zones that need to be populated with quests anyway.

They could turn those zones into like 8-15 zones or something. Retune Exiles to be 1-8.

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As someone who is in the games industry, (and I think someone who isnt could come to this conclusion too) that it makes little sense to develop an entirely new model (Not just a new outfit!) for two characters, one male, one female, especially when one (Pelagos) is transitionary for his later look. Not only that, but with armor compatibility, it seems almost certain that the intent is playability.

If I had to spitball, it'll probably be a 9.2.5 release, and a pre-order bonus to get people buying the new expansion.

I don't think it's a huge leap in logic to say Kyrian probably isn't the only one, going by the logic that this will likely be playable.

Guessing just Kyrian and Venthyr. Alliance Kyrian and Horde Venthyr, or neutral allied race?

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Arbiter has a billion souls to route, two jobs would be too much.

Sylvanas probably will just be tasked with sending them back to Oribos where Pelagos does his thing.

My final guess is that she has to jump into the Maw and save every soul. It's going to take her 10,000 years or something dumb like that to save every soul. After which the arbiter will judge her and let her have peace.

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This is still on my mind every now and then and was again reminded of it while reading that "leak", I believe these animations still haven't been used in 9.2 so far but are still there which might indicate them being for whatever comes next. There's also likely an encrypted emerald drake mount in the files, which might or might not have a connection to future content as well. Hmm!

Living world enter. What is the entire expansion is underground. We have to fight our way to Azeroth and deal with underground enemies and Old God minions trying to kill her or something. 5 zones underground sounds fantastic.

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Quite the leak that. Though I am willing to cut it a little slack on account of the English presumably being horribly translated, leading to something that doesn't even sound remotely similar to the tone of WoW. It sounds more like it's the next FFXIV expansion in tone, and I cannot for the life of me figure out if this is intentional or not.
Only part that seemed even remotely plausible outside systems are the part where there is a society of various shipwrecked survivors.

Its definitely a new idea and very creative. Its out there enough to be real. Not that I think it is, but it sounds interesting at least.

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You also forgot the updated Westfall texture from BFA and the unused/barely used updated Nelf buildings from BFA (they updated the inn so well it now has a running stream in it.. yet only appears in the background in Darkshore ruins).

There is enough Dragon stuff, revamp stuff and EK/Kalimdor plotlines floating around to say Cata 2 is a go. Not to mention the smaller expansion (SL, nothing obviously scrapped like WoD so they probably planned it this time) precluding a large one.

Wasnt there a barrens or durotar rock texture during bfa? Obviously for a scrapped Warfront, but could also be used for a revamp.

[username993720]

Guys, guys!
I've got his leak from an inside WoW dev.
Hold on to your butts, this is a big one.
"In the next couple of months, we're gonna see 10.0 leaks".

[Hitei]

What 10.0 will be about:

- another borrowed power system(s)
- another 5 leveling areas
- another final raid
- another set of dungeons

what 10.0 will not be about

- systems that matter
- rewards outside of raids, dungeons and pvp that matter for character progression
- fun open world content
- fair pvp
- a good crafting system with progression from world content, without the need to play "everything"
- a focus on what players want (narrow progression pathes instead of "play-it-all")
- no raid focus

What you want =/= "what players want"