Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Kohtra]

So what they're doing is making that a matter of personal choice. The Horde & Alliance conflict will still exist, but just like theres only a percentage of players who care about PVP, you get to decide if the character you play as cares about the horde/alliance conflict.

There's a lot of "could" in what you're saying. I just don't think Blizzard will bother to work on anything more than arenas anymore.

[huth]

Look, you guys can argue with me all you want. I'm just saying I do not foresee Blizzard bothering with BGs and world PvP zones long term anymore. Plain and simple I don't see them doing it anymore. I want to be wrong, but I just don't see them bothering to devote resources to it any more if they haven't already in the last few years.

Probably not, no, but that's far more down to PvP just not being that big a thing. There is little reason to accept your assertion that this would somehow be connected to the faction conflict.

WoW is ultimately a PvE game first and foremost.

[Ersula]

There's a lot of "could" in what you're saying. I just don't think Blizzard will bother to work on anything more than arenas anymore.

PvP is still an important draw of the game. PvPers are pretty much the only group not running for the proverbial FFXIV hills right now. And for that the Horde & Alliance aesthetic is easier than having none at all.

I think you're imagining the Horde/Alliance aesthetic have some intrinsic value to the mechanics of the game, which hasn't been true since they removed the faction-specific classes. Like all the story, it's just window dressing.

[Kohtra]

Probably not, no, but that's far more down to PvP just not being that big a thing. There is little reason to accept your assertion that this would somehow be connected to the faction conflict.

WoW is ultimately a PvE game first and foremost.

PvP is still an important draw of the game. PvPers are pretty much the only group not running for the proverbial FFXIV hills right now. And for that the Horde & Alliance aesthetic is easier than having none at all.

I think you're imagining the Horde/Alliance aesthetic have some intrinsic value to the mechanics of the game, which hasn't been true since they removed the faction-specific classes. Like all the story, it's just window dressing.

I don't even know anymore.

[Revamp Man]

This cross-faction gameplay has NOTHING to do with lore or game development.

It is there just to EASE life for wow players who have MANY friends in both factions. Or even to ease life for ALLIANCE playerbase which is.... close to non-existent in raid scene atm.

Faction tensions are still present to this day. Or could be even worse if lore-team decides to make it so.

But EVEN THEN- we can still have cross-faction INSTANCED gameplay.

No no no
You in your instance playing with others ruins my immersion in MY instance

[Palapop]

No no no
You in your instance playing with others ruins my immersion in MY instance

Error 404: care not found.

[huth]

Error 404: care not found.

I'd prefer 503: Care unavailable.

Or 418: I'm a teapot.

[Jokubas]

After seeing parts of the community I never expected to be behind this rooting for it to go further, and the interviews detailing more of their thought process instead of just a PR blurb, I'm much more optimistic about this now. I still would have liked this to have started stronger, but I'm feeling much better about it now (I don't regret my initial reaction because it was based on precedent, not paranoia, and only time will tell how well this pans out).

I'm also a little more interested in what the next expansion will entail now. Before I was having fun with the speculation but wasn't all that excited for the announcement itself. With such a major and longstanding wish of mine starting to sort of being rolled out ahead of the expansion, maybe the expansion itself will catch me by surprise too.

[Super Dickmann]

Surprised they actually went through with it. Gameplay-wise it's been a no-brainer for a while. Storywise it hinges entirely on whether they actually use the potential they have. The factions at the end of BFA are copy-pastes of each other value-wise anyway and also have races with compatible aesthetics, so it's not like anything is lost by actually wringing some gameplay value out of it. As Ion references you can show a multitude of racial perspectives regarding this and maintain individual motive more re: groups like the Night Elves, Forsaken etc. He's right on paper too, but in practice, it removes the last barrier keeping us from World of Humancraft narratively.

[Jokubas]

Yeah, the thing that bothers me that still goes unmentioned is that, in Warcraft III, there were four factions. I don't need to be reassured that the Alliance and Horde will continue to mean something in the game even if we aren't limited by them, partially because it's sort of obvious that they will. I would like to be reassured that other forces not just be allowed to have an identity, but sometimes even an identity on the level of the Alliance and Horde, just like we had in Warcraft III.

[Edoll]

this info is quite old, but tldr

yes, dragon isles
5 zones - blue/red/green/bronze surrounding black zone in center. center has a huge tower like wyrmrest but massively bigger.
there's one very large island off coast and a few small ones.

leveling - players align with a draconic house immediately when they start expansion
basically covenants but there is no/little player power, all cosmetic. no covenant abilities.
renown, soulbinds, mission table were all in but straight copy pasted from SL. they will likely be changed and/or removed.
there is anima type power to collect. covenants have a shared pool instead of 4 separate. 'anima' can also be spent on open world powerups.
linear story for leveling, but there are 4 variants based on which house you choose (determines order that you go through leveling zones)
stories converge at 68 when you enter center zone

black dragonflight zone central tower contains the big expansion system. it's sort of like torghast but each room is a single encounter with a miniboss or group of enemies (no trash). some rooms also had a non combat event/challenge. complete a room and choose the next one from a branching tree map. you can see type of encounter + room reward (ie anima power) type before choosing. final boss at end. unsure of permanent rewards/legendaries/etc tied to this system. it was more fun than torghast in my very limited experience.

story: wrathion trying to reunite aspects, etc. healing the land (center zone) with green dragon's help. infinite dragonflight sees him changing the timeline and interferes - they are subject of first raid. in the bronze zone because timey things.

cross faction is in. group through group finder only. could talk in party/raid chat but not in open world or public channels. no xfaction guilds.

no new class
talk of adding tank specs to some pure dps classes. hunter and warlock were being worked on. doubt this will actually make it to release.

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

[Raetary]

I was arguing with a guy I know earlier because, according to him, ''this will utterly destroy immersion and RP in this game''.

Because rpers totally don't play with opposite faction players all the time and chug down 25 gallons of that flask you get in Dalaran that lets you communicate cross faction each day.

[Redzonetode]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

[Makabreska]

Because rpers totally don't play with opposite faction players all the time and chug down 25 gallons of that flask you get in Dalaran that lets you communicate cross faction each day.

Ye, people also keep forgetting that story-wise factions officially worked witch each other since vanilla. Immersion breaking my ass.

[Jokubas]

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

Not just that, it doesn't really have any selling points at all. It sounds like a stripped down Shadowlands, with a simpler Covenant system and simpler Torghast. The cross-faction instances is the only thing notable about it and that's coming in 9.2.5.

[ExiHext]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Was the most believable in my eyes anyways because of that Torghast rip-off alone. It has very little fan-service and reeks of "but why...?!?". No playerpower tied to the "covenants" sounds about right, too. And I personally would like new specs for existing classes a lot more than a new class. Not just tank specs for some, but different roles for every class, perhaps added in patches because 12 new specs for a single x.0 patch sounds like too much work.
Then again: a leak is just a leak. I don't believe anything until it is officially announced.

- - - Updated - - -

Not just that, it doesn't really have any selling points at all. It sounds like a stripped down Shadowlands, with a simpler Covenant system and simpler Torghast.

That alone makes it believable for me. Sounds like something Blizz would do.

And it is possible that they changed their minds about cross faction since the leaker got his information.

[BaumanKing]

What's the point of races joining factions now? Isn't it beneficial then to remain neutral and work with everyone?

[Luck4]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

It's a possibility, but let's hope it's just a coincidence.

[Revamp Man]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Not necessarily
If they were going cross faction it would make sense to just do instances a lot like the pvp system that is essentially the same thing

[Makabreska]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

Lucky and educated guess, especially after Ion confirmed previous year they are looking into some form of cross faction.