Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

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

wtf?

Summer release is for sure not out of picture. Blizzard could just decide it's better since we already had 3 very successful August releases (Legion, BfA, Classic).

But what's your source?

[Bindanda]

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

wtf?

Source for this?

[Black Rider]

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

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

Could be, how are the skyboxes called ingame files?
Maybe we should start searching for Dragon named things?
Like it was Kul Tiras cloth and Suramar things before

[Makorus]

Could be, how are the skyboxes called ingame files?
Maybe we should start searching for Dragon named things?
Like it was Kul Tiras cloth and Suramar things before

There are no file names anymore.

[Sondrelk]

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.

The full amount of 4 armor types for each individual rep might be a bit too ambitious. But a single cosmetic set or two might be doable. Doesn't even necessarily need to be all transmoggable slots either, just something that looks distinctive like what we had in 9.1 in Korthia. Then make 3 or 4 recolours to sprinkle across the zone from various activities, a d you are set.

4 individual armor sets, a full suite of themed weapons, and 2 distinct mounts with 4 recolours each is great and all, but really you could probably cut that way down, and if you then make everything available all at once then the sheer amount of content would be astronomical.
Furthermore you can then rep or renown lock it on a timegate forcing players to pick and choose what zone and rep they like the most.
Rerolling the chosen rep would not be needed if there is no instanced power gain, and since it would pretty much just be cosmetic the timegate dial could be tuned quite high to incentivize players spending more time in-game for rewards they enjoy.

Ideally you could probably even have even more pronounced open world power gains as rewards for picking a specific covenant. Might be annoying to have to consider how your class or spec plays in raids when picking what aesthetic you like the most. But in the open world you can throw out a 10 minute ability that deals massive damage with almost no problems to balance.

[Wangming]

At any rate time to specualate on what we could get.

Zones: While the Dragon Isles aren't technically confirmed, it would be kinda weird to do an expansion based on dragons without it. It seems kinda a no brainer to have a zone for each flight and perhaps a neutral one for all of them.
- Bronze: A desert zone, obviously.
- Blue: I would imagine something cold and icy. And also with lots of structures. Probably the most modern looking one with a lot of magically powered tech.
- Black: Looking like fucking mordor. Plus point if it has an actual volcano.
- Red: Lush forest number 1. With lots of red leaves as if it were autumn. Eversong Woods mixed with Vale of Eternal Blossom.
- Green: Lush forest number 2. Looks very much like the Emeral Dream.

The Neutral one will have a Titan facility. If it won't be straight up a Titan Facility.

Characters: The aspects, obviously. Gonna hazad a guess and say that Kalecgos gets a new model. Also as Y'sera is still kinda dead her position will probably taken over by Merithra. I also expect Blanduin as he no longer has to deal with being a leader. Plus his boyfriend Wrathion will be present.

Story: Most importantly the story will either retcon or undo the resolution of Cataclysm. You know, lack of power and inability to reproduce. If we go playing Lost World, I don't think Turalyon will do much so we will see how good of a leader he is in 11.0. Depending on how the new World Tree will develop I can see a storyline with Tyrande as she helps out all the flights in order to secure their blessings for the new tree.
Also also we will likely see a new Dragonflight or Two.

Class: All three classes added so far had close ties to the theme of the expansion so we can outrule a lot of possibilities. No, Tinker is not totally good for a dragon expac. Honestly, I'm not sure what would fit.

Race: Well unless we play Dragons with weirdly weak racials, I really don't know. I guess it depends on what kind of races live on the Isles as well. I mean there has to be other inhabitants otherwise there won't be any buildings for humanoid use. I totally expect at least a troll tribe. Would be cool to bump into Mogu or Pandaren. Maybe even Yaungol as they are supposed to be the original Tauren form. Also possibly Earthen and Iron Vrykul AKA pre curse of flesh people.

Features:

Don't know, but player housing would be a weird choice. I don't think the aspects would appreciate us building a Villa on their ancestral home.
What I could see is a customizable ship to explore. They are the Isles, in plural after all.

[Raetary]

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.

A mere trademark is one thing.
Logo, key art and name alongside pre-purchase bundles from the official site is a whole nother.

[Sondrelk]

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

Why thank ye!

[Black Rider]

There are no file names anymore.

How do you know that

[Dracullus]

Dragonflight expansion + LivingWorld = zones on dragon's ass confirmed.

[ClassicPeon]

SNIP.

I like the thought about adding a volcano to the black dragonflight area. Would be cool if it would then add sort of a random event sometimes where it would erupt. In general i think wow needs more variety in its zones then it has currently - in terms of what you actually do there.

[Makorus]

How do you know that

There haven't been file names for a while now, maybe since 8.3 or slightly after that. There definitely haven't been file names for anything in Shadowlands.

There is just IDs now.

[micwini]

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.

I think this was before WoD/legion, not pandaria. But it wasnt on the blizz website itself so.

[Cosmic Janitor]

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.

Quick, someone trademark dragonflight.

[micwini]

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

wtf?

where did you get this from?

[Izalla]

Yep WoD definitely had the best raid gear. TBC and Legion were also great.

The love for the vanilla and TBC sets still to this day (TBC especially) says a lot for sets that are more simplistic and focused in theme and with good colours that aren't washed out or gross palettes (besides when they are supposed to be like the rogue geist set from ICC). The sets that are washed out greys and browns with the dullest of "colour pops" or overloaded with too many assets are better for using individual pieces in my own more simplistic transmogs I find.

[Sondrelk]

I like the thought about adding a volcano to the black dragonflight area. Would be cool if it would then add sort of a random event sometimes where it would erupt. In general i think wow needs more variety in its zones then it has currently - in terms of what you actually do there.

Sadly this is just one of those things that I think Blizzard has lost interest in really doing.
Every time they try to make a zone noticeably different than others it usually ends up with player outrage.

Making a zone noticeably different requires making the gameplay in it unique. And there isn't really a way to promote gameplay without asking players to actually play it, and you can't really make it optional since that usually just means making it easier.

Gameplay is the antithesis to convenience, and if there is one thing WoW players have gornw accustomed to its convenience. Which would be why things like the Xenedar attacks in Argus were basically removed, or why players yell about having to use elevators in Revendreth.

[Wangming]

I like the thought about adding a volcano to the black dragonflight area. Would be cool if it would then add sort of a random event sometimes where it would erupt. In general i think wow needs more variety in its zones then it has currently - in terms of what you actually do there.

There needs to be more to exploration than icons for world bosses and chests. We need puzzles, minigames and challenges. Don't know if you play Genshin Impact, but it does a great job in this regard. There are shared activities that all released regions have, but some are totally new. Also the third region we have, Inazuma, is an archipelago. It is lightning themed and all the Islands have lightning themed puzzles. But all of them have puzzles and minigames specific to them. It is both focused and diverse at the same time. Something like that would be great for the Dragon isles.

[JDBlou]

- Red: Lush forest number 1. With lots of red leaves as if it were autumn. Eversong Woods mixed with Vale of Eternal Blossom.

Now that's a dream zone.

[Wangming]

Sadly this is just one of those things that I think Blizzard has lost interest in really doing.
Every time they try to make a zone noticeably different than others it usually ends up with player outrage.

Making a zone noticeably different requires making the gameplay in it unique. And there isn't really a way to promote gameplay without asking players to actually play it, and you can't really make it optional since that usually just means making it easier.

Gameplay is the antithesis to convenience, and if there is one thing WoW players have gornw accustomed to its convenience. Which would be why things like the Xenedar attacks in Argus were basically removed, or why players yell about having to use elevators in Revendreth.

I'm one of the perverts who liked Vash'ir, so this makes me sad. Unique zones are the best kind.