Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Wangming]

Gotta admit, Dragons bore me to tears and give me Knakk flashbacks, so not even remotely hyped. Hopefully they won't try to rape the setting any more than they already have this time at least.

Sweeet! I'm not alone!

[Runeitude]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...1#post53587771

There was this one here, but its obviously fake.

The only thing to me that screams obviously fake is the four single spec classes - unless what that actually means is a kind of backdoor 4th spec where your existing character trains as one of these. Still seems outlandish, but not as bad as a class tied into a single spec.

Other than that it does go to a lot of different part of lore (dragons, scourge, scarlets, titans, undermine etc) but I remember when Legion was announced it felt a bit like that where they were hitting the legion, the emerald nightmare, Turalyon & Alleria (they were name dropped in the reveal) etc. It was a go to move after a poorly received expansion in the past.

I wouldn't totally discount it, I'd say low to middling probability, though that's solely backed up by this title leak.

[draugril]

Sweeet! I'm not alone!

Dragons are like swords in fantasy settings. They're part of the scenery. They might not always be in the spotlight, but if they're missing, you'll notice it quickly. There's a comforting familiarity to them.

[uikolertekopoku]

While i think the Poster is 90% Legit, i wonder where that image has it source.

There is no real origin source.

[Tartys]

This got me thinking, those encrypted things that got hotfixed on Friday (2 pets, 2 mounts). Maybe it's 1 pet/1 mount per CE level? Heroic gets 2, Epic gets 4.

Thats clever... but Dragon Aspects are 5, wasnt a little strange having only 4?

[Makorus]

The only thing to me that screams obviously fake is the four single spec classes - unless what that actually means is a kind of backdoor 4th spec where your existing character trains as one of these. Still seems outlandish, but not as bad as a class tied into a single spec.

Other than that it does go to a lot of different part of lore (dragons, scourge, scarlets, titans, undermine etc) but I remember when Legion was announced it felt a bit like that where they were hitting the legion, the emerald nightmare, Turalyon & Alleria (they were name dropped in the reveal) etc. It was a go to move after a poorly received expansion in the past.

I wouldn't totally discount it, I'd say low to middling probability, though that's solely backed up by this title leak.

The microclasses are idiotic, Warden DH skin using Arcane/Holy doesn't make any sense, no level cap increase is incredibly unlikely, bringing back Order Hall campaigns but retconning you as the leader is baffling, when content in 9.2.5 actually refers to you as the leader.

Also, the fact that, y'know, it wasn't announced February 28th.

[Tiradon]

Quick question got lost with so many replies, who shared the concept art and when?

[Blayze]

Calling it now: The Dragon Isles are in the sky.

https://twitter.com/TheRedShirtGuy/s...75687868284931

[Raetary]

Calling it now: the Dragon Isles are in the sky.

https://twitter.com/TheRedShirtGuy/s...75687868284931

In the sky above Northern EK would be neat.

[Izalla]

There's no way it's this one. I was at first baited by the expansion name but this "one spec classes" is just impossible to make. Imagine having to design 4 class sets just for 1 spec (which means 6 color variation for LFR, normal, heroic, mythic, conquest and elite and different variation for mythic and elite), having to balance this stuff for PvP (blizzard hates tank in PvP so dragonknight would just be a no no), class colors, identity.

This would be dumb as hell, especially when you add class cosmetic on the same expac.

Another point against this that I haven't seen brought up yet (but may have been in the pages since, I only just woke up and haven't caught up yet): two of those microclasses are healers. Now, being able to level as a healer is something they have made sure is easier and more viable lately compared to previous years, but I can't really see them introducing a class where you have no choice but to level as a healer. It is slower and every other class that has a healer offers the option to switch to dps for leveling and world content. Maybe in the olden days where changing specs was a lot more of a hassle and less likely to be freely encouraged, but it just seems like a bad idea to me these days.

[ercarp]

Assuming it's actually painted and not a cinematic still, I wonder if the poster art was made by Dmitry Prozorov. They've made key art for other Blizzard products in the past and their work is clearly some of the best in the industry.

EDIT: On second thought, I think it's more likely that it's Bayard Wu's work based on the way he illustrates dragons as well as the general composition of his other art pieces.

[Izalla]

Personally I figured it might be best to scale covenants down, and then link them more tightly to reputations instead. Maybe even just make them all available to everyone.

Maybe also scaling the rewards down from 4 themed sets each down to just one or two per might be better. 9.1 covenant sets instead of 9.0 basically.

Reputations that you have to advance to further their stories but everyone can work on all of them without having to progress any other system on top of it would make me happy, so long as the grinds are naturally flowing from activities you would expect to be doing for these factions anyway with minimal outright grinding of things like mobs or whatever.

- - - Updated - - -

Imagine a new world tree with thousands of soul pods hanging from it. They will eventually emerge in new bodies. Likely leading to a shadowlands allied race.

If all those night elf souls could be returned to our world even as soul shapes it would be pretty cool. Like an upgrade from the wisps. They could be all over the new tree and eventually revamped night elf zones as friendly wildlife.

[draugril]

Personally I figured it might be best to scale covenants down, and then link them more tightly to reputations instead. Maybe even just make them all available to everyone.

Maybe also scaling the rewards down from 4 themed sets each down to just one or two per might be better. 9.1 covenant sets instead of 9.0 basically.

Moreover, it would be fantastic if reputation rewards were tied specifically to the originating reputation. Instead of buying a random piece of raid gear from them, you buy armour that speaks to the culture of that faction. Instead of the new mounts being doled out one-skin-per-rep-grind, you get a mount that actually befits the reputation, and so on.

[Izalla]

Even better than row factions. Just use the renown system to gate things in a way that means less "forced" grind.
At det intervals you get a quest for one or more renown. You basically trade these to any given rep, possibly even for a large chunk of individual rep if you want to make it easy.
You want the Necrolord set? Just give all your renown to them, you might fall a bit behind on extra bonuses in Ardenweald and therefore not get the mounts as quickly, but you will get an armored tauralus mount and the set quicker instead.

As a bonus this means that the system is inherently designed to give a player all covenants fully available from the start, and Blizzard can then just tune the knob a bit depending on how quickly this should go. Maybe very slow so it takes at least a few months to max one out I the beginning, and then much faster later.

Blizzard, hire this man(or woman) right now!

[Cosmic Janitor]

There goes my hopes that we do NOT get a dragon themed Class.

Lol why? I wouldn't even be sure if we get a new class at all. The write up leak seems at best coincidental yet utterly false, at worst true but peppered with absolute nonsense to protect the source. Micro classes are the absolute antithesis of WoWs current design philosphy, it would have more sense to make them 4th specs, because with their new commitment to class sets they just added a shit ton of extra work for little wanky classes that barely amount to 1 spec, yet 4 of those. It would be easier to tack those single specs to existing classes like warrior, hunter, rogue and mage than actually make them a new class each. All while going with the skins idea for another couple specs. Even if Team 2 were desperate to please the fans suddenly, that seems a strech even for the thirstiest whore.

- - - Updated - - -

Gotta admit, Dragons bore me to tears and give me Knakk flashbacks, so not even remotely hyped. Hopefully they won't try to rape the setting any more than they already have this time at least.

Lol you can hardly make it worse than sad time travel orcs or going to the fucking afterlife. Cosmology wise the setting is FUBAR already.

[Izalla]

I feel like Shaman would definitely be black.

I was thinking that too. People seem to forget that the black dragonflight was the flight of the earth and deep places. Lava, rocks, all that crap. Just because they got corrupted into the "bad dragons" (ahem, that was not a reference to a well known website) doesn't mean they are the dumping ground for just the dark and shady classes. There is a reason shaman Thrall was the stand in black aspect in Cata.

Casually waiting for @Chickat to catch up over 25 pages

This made me laugh and feel self conscious as I do this too and currently am doing this (though with way less pages right now!)

[Hyrja]

"World of Warcraft: Dragonflight™ releases on or before August 29th, 2023"

wtf?

[Makorus]

"World of Warcraft: Dragonflight™ releases on or before August 29th, 2023"

wtf?

Where is that from?

[Raetary]

EDIT: On second thought, I think it's more likely that it's Bayard Wu's work based on the way he illustrates dragons as well as the general composition of his other art pieces.

Definitely Bayard Wu, the art style fits his artworks.

[Astalavista]

We all remember when Blizzard trademarked "The Dark Below" just days before gamescon and everyone thought that was the next expansion, Pandaria came instead.
I believe it when I see it.