Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Chickat]

Probably not for a while, maybe November at the earliest. I don't expect to see anything until 9.1.5 has been live for a few weeks.

Honestly, the real question is, will there be a 9.3, and when will 10.0 be announced?

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I'd expected something around now, but then I didn't expect them to do a whole PTR cycle for 9.1.5 (or even 9.1.5 at all in these times).

At this point I'm guessing... reveal in November, PTR in the new year?

I'd guess 9.1.5 will launch in late October, with the announcement of 9.2 in November, ptr in early December. 9.2 release late Feb.

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I wonder if 9.2 is going to introduce some kind of Anima and Grateful offerings sink when that releases.
Anima especially is already overabundant in this patch, I have to imagine the deluge will be even worse once we get even further and there are fewer things to buy still.

What would be a fitting animasink reward though I wonder...

Challenge mode weapon recolors?

[Luck4]

Honestly, the real question is, will there be a 9.3, and when will 10.0 be announced?

I'd guess 9.1.5 will launch in late October, with the announcement of 9.2 in November, ptr in early December. 9.2 release late Feb.

I hope 9.2 is teased before February, otherwise, Blizzard could delay the expansion announcement to Gammescon 2022, and while I don't care if the next expansion is only coming in 2023, I really wanna know what direction Blizzard will take for this game.

[Hitei]

They should do this more often.

They've been doing it since like... wrath?

[Sondrelk]

They've been doing it since like... wrath?

Maybe he meant the kind of survey that asks stuff like what Classic players were asked.

What direction woukd you want the game to go.
What do you want to see in the next expansion.

Stuff like that. Might crash horribly once you get expectations crashing headfirst into the reality of random polls but still.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They've been doing it since like... wrath?

I haven't seen it used since Wrath.

[Black Rider]

A blog has come to mind, but any posts would just end up as reposted on other sites shortly after I post them.

As for a new BG, no direct references but they are seemingly analyzing spell performance in large player groups, so maybe it's something they're thinking about.

Blog could contain several how to do things :P
Thanks for the answers!
I hope to see new BG's so that's a little spark of hope.

[Chickat]

I hope 9.2 is teased before February, otherwise, Blizzard could delay the expansion announcement to Gammescon 2022, and while I don't care if the next expansion is only coming in 2023, I really wanna know what direction Blizzard will take for this game.

I mean we would know about 9.2 in Nov or December. There's no way the ptr for it isn't out this year. It won't be live until Jan/Feb but we will know what it is in 2ish months if I had to guess.

Also, if they delay 10.0 reveal until August 2022, we are looking at a minimum late Spring 2023 launch, which might be fine if they actually do a 9.3 too, but assuming they skip 9.3, they will have to announce during a blizzconline in like Feb/March 2022.

[Nyel]

I mean we would know about 9.2 in Nov or December. There's no way the ptr for it isn't out this year. It won't be live until Jan/Feb but we will know what it is in 2ish months if I had to guess.

Also, if they delay 10.0 reveal until August 2022, we are looking at a minimum late Spring 2023 launch, which might be fine if they actually do a 9.3 too, but assuming they skip 9.3, they will have to announce during a blizzconline in like Feb/March 2022.

In no future they will wait almost an entire year from now on to announce the next expansion, lol. They'll announce it ASAP (meaning as soon as they have meaningful stuff to show, more than what they had ready for 9.1 when they announced it).

Right now I'm more interested in when 9.1.5 will be live as it has basically zero new content.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Remember when Blizz leaked the level squish in a survey? Good times.

[Nyel]

Remember when Blizz leaked the level squish in a survey? Good times.

Wasn't it the same with TBC Classic where they had a survey several months before the official announcement asking if players would like TBC Classic?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Wasn't it the same with TBC Classic where they had a survey several months before the official announcement asking if players would like TBC Classic?

If I recall that one right it was more or less an interest check on everything from Fresh Classic to BC Classic to Classic +.

[Hitei]

Remember when Blizz leaked the level squish in a survey? Good times.

I seem to recall it not really being a leak, because they had already expressed an expansion before that they would really like to do it and it was just not quite the right time yet.

[draugril]

Any scraps of hype or intrigue to get me through the oncoming week?

[Sondrelk]

Any scraps of hype or intrigue to get me through the oncoming week?

Brewfest is imminent, you could always get a few beers and get drunk alongside your characters.

[Dracullus]

Without this fucked up schedule we would be in ultra hype mode and thread would move 10 pages a day right now. It's so sad.

[Sondrelk]

Without this fucked up schedule we would be in ultra hype mode and thread would move 10 pages a day right now. It's so sad.

Had this discussion with some of my fellow officers recently. If it wasnt for Covid we would likely be well into 9.2, eagerly awaiting news on the final patch and the next expansion.
Instead we are not even sure how much longer we have. Noone 2 years ago would in good faith assume that 9.0 would be delayed as long as it was, much less that it would be continously delayed.
I find that the expansion really slows down right around the end of the X.1 patch regardless, so the fact that this one is long overdue already is what is likely killing enthusiasm quickly.
I imagine that once the final patch is announced properly the activity will speed up again. Even more so once the next expansion is released and players can start really discussing what is likely to be a part of said expansion.

[draugril]

They're going to need to hit it out of the park with 10.0. If it's just another skin on the Mythic+/Raid grind with another half-baked side feature that they themselves have no faith in... I'm not going to say WoW is dead, but I will say that we should start looking to the cadence of HotS patches to see what we have in store.

[Sondrelk]

They're going to need to hit it out of the park with 10.0. If it's just another skin on the Mythic+/Raid grind with another half-baked side feature that they themselves have no faith in... I'm not going to say WoW is dead, but I will say that we should start looking to the cadence of HotS patches to see what we have in store.

I wouldn't say so really. Or at least not that they would require something outstanding. At this point an expansion that simply does everything to a middle g standard would be better than much of SL and BfA.

The problems with SL, at least a cording to me is twofold:
One, the expansion has a horrible theme to base an expansion around. The connection to WoW as a whole is lacking, and the zone design amplifies that disconnect.
Two, covid just fucked over everything. This one Blizzard couldn't realistically do anything about really, but it is still something they had to deal with regardless. Once the expansion was delayed, then delayed again for 9.1 it's fate was sealed. Nothing is going to save it at this point shirt of the second coming.

The next expansion just needs to be BfA or Legion content and releases with SL systems (for the most part). The bar has been lowered enough that a good solid expansion is all it would take to regain subs I would think.



A really amazing expansion would be appreciated. Though I don't think Blizzard is going to regain most most players anyways.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

That won't really change anything significantly. The pandemic is the factor that matters the most.

[Nyel]

I find the pandemic excuse to be pretty lame at this point. Please look at what SquareEnix is delivering with Endwalker, an expansion that really and completely was developed during the pandemic and lockdowns for the most part (Blizzard must have started work on Shadowlands months before Blizzcon, so most parts should have been developed and conceptually finalized before COVID became prevalent) and then look at what WoW is doing at this point. Yes, Endwalker was delayed by three months, but so was Shadowlands, just that it was a mere month (Shadowbringers > Endwalker has basically the same length as BfA > Shadowlands).

They had huge problems before COVID, they just haven’t been as visible. But with COVID the entire construct became cracks and well, with the lawsuit it broke. Now get that back to normal work. Here’s to hoping that they really pour EVERYTHING into the next expansion and start listening to player feedback in beta and not just on the PTR for 10.1.5.