Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Super Dickmann]

You strike me as someone who prefers cosmic expansions….

I don't know about him but I'll skip beating around the bush and say I've always found WoW dragons boring as sin whereas the Titan and Shadowlands' stuff is at least high concept fantasy. The only main plot that hinged on dragons, Cataclysm, was fucking abysmal. But it also had the best down to earth world content post-Vanilla in the content it enabled which is what I hope that a hypothetical Dragon Isles expanson will be. Dragons as a backdrop to focusing on Azeroth and the individual races and political factions, relegated to their main story ghetto.

Ashes, which looks fake, seems to fit that latter mold, which is good. The real thing should go the same direction. Hopefully with better raids since Cataclysm was a raiding wasteland besides Firelands, which is overrated.

[Ethule]

I'd rather have major content patches then mini small ones all the time. What you suggest is much less and well that works for fortnite and I don't want that to WoW. I also wasn't talking about dailies and small quest line either but go ahead and snark away.

Clearly you didn't read the post and just skimmed then because I said smaller updates to zones sprinkled in-between or even released along side main or major content patches. I'm not suggesting they scrap the Major Patch releases for small incremental updates.

[Catastrophy349]

With the HYPE and speculation around 9.2's release date being 2/22/22, I'm curious how long everyone thinks we will wait until we get 10.0 news? Do we think March? Right after the Zovaal cinematic gets released (within days/few weeks)? Or are people thinking we are still a bit away from an announcement for 10.0? I'm just curious.

Additionally, we talk a lot about the features/expansion name/etc. in this thread but how about the cinematic trailer for 10.0? What would we like to see?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

We could end up with a surprise announcement for 10.0 news if the Team has no confidence in the Zovaal Cinematic. If they have confidence in the Zovaal Cinematic then it will most likely be announced a few days or the next week after it shows up.

[Khaza-R]

The Grimoire thing is the most interesting part of the AoG leak to me.

On one hand, if you re-read all of Blizzard's comments, they never once call the WarCraft mobile title a game. Instead using words like "content" and "new experiences" which is interesting.

On the other hand, there was already a book released in 2021 called "WoW : Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond". Seems unlikely to me they would choice name so close to this title to avoid confusion.

Regardless, its an interesting leak at least.

[Ethule]

Additionally, we talk a lot about the features/expansion name/etc. in this thread but how about the cinematic trailer for 10.0? What would we like to see?

Honestly had my dreams crushed today knowing it will never happen BUT...

Anduin shows up in Northerend with the "Crown of Wills" to purge it of scourge. Varian speaking to him like the OG LK Cinematic as he cuts through the armies of the dead. Finally reaching the top of Wyrmrest Temple he uses a massive resurrection spell and raises Galakrond from the dead.

Would have been cool but oh well. Ya'll can hate if you want. Lol I'm just a random idiot on the internet.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The Grimoire thing is the most interesting part of the AoG leak to me.

On one hand, if you re-read all of Blizzard's comments, they never once call the WarCraft mobile title a game. Instead using words like "content" and "new experiences" which is interesting.

On the other hand, there was already a book released in 2021 called "WoW : Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond". Seems unlikely to me they would choice name so close to this title to avoid confusion.

Regardless, its an interesting leak at least.

They should've just integrated it into the game. Give a Lore Tab on the Interface.

I am not going to read updates about the lore on a fucking Phone or a Tablet nor am I going to buy DRM'd books on a App if there was a collection system it should be in-game being able to read at any time while theres' downtime.

Again, if it was in-game System I'd be beyond hyped because I've always wanted a in-game Lore Tab. But, if it is a outside App nonsense it just feels disconnected from the premise imo.

[Kohtra]

Really hoping AoG is real. It's philosophically moving the game in the direction I've always wanted since Vanilla with the whole Living World concept.

[Khaza-R]

They should've just integrated it into the game. Give a Lore Tab on the Interface.

I am not going to read updates about the lore on a fucking Phone or a Tablet nor am I going to buy DRM'd books on a App if there was a collection system it should be in-game being able to read at any time while theres' downtime.

Again, if it was in-game System I'd be beyond hyped because I've always wanted a in-game Lore Tab. But, if it is a outside App nonsense it just feels disconnected from the premise imo.

There could be cross-integration. The leak doesn't really specify.

Regardless if its real or not, I do think we are going to see WarCraft mobile titles more integrated in future installments of the game. Like the Hearthstone tavern that showed up in the game files but has yet to be released.

[Teriz]

Really hoping AoG is real. It's philosophically moving the game in the direction I've always wanted since Vanilla with the whole Living World concept.

AoG definitely seems like a breath of fresh air after Shadowlands. Exploring a new continent on Azeroth tied to dragons and the old gods sounds infinitely better than another cosmic slog through a parallel dimension.

[huth]

Honestly had my dreams crushed today knowing it will never happen BUT...

Anduin shows up in Northerend with the "Crown of Wills" to purge it of scourge. Varian speaking to him like the OG LK Cinematic as he cuts through the armies of the dead. Finally reaching the top of Wyrmrest Temple he uses a massive resurrection spell and raises Galakrond from the dead.

Would have been cool but oh well. Ya'll can hate if you want. Lol I'm just a random idiot on the internet.

I'm a bit confused as to why he would raise Galakrond. That doesn't seem to serve any real purpose.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I'm a bit confused as to why he would raise Galakrond. That doesn't seem to serve any real purpose.

I'm assuming somehow the influence of the former LK helm did it but yeah, there's no reasoning behind it. Might make sense if Zovaal was doing it knowing he's losing out of spite but that also is a bit too similar to someone else(Sargeras stabbing azeroth).

[Izalla]

Both of them should just straight up wear leather. The upgrade to mail was only a gameplay concession for long forgotten systems. Shamans are tribal priests, no reason why they should wear anything other than leather. Hunters in WoW were always closer to the classical ranger in gameplay and theme than they were to a chainmail wearing crossbow marksmen.

Shaman becoming plate would be like a nightmare change for me, it's already hard enough finding decent mail pieces for my ideal shaman look that aren't straight up shaman tier items (I just want some more clothy or leathery tribal looking skirts please, not overly complex looking metal themed monstrosities). Cloth and leather are the only things that make sense, and since you can't mix and match both anymore I guess it would have to be cloth if hunter was going leather already since leather would then have 5 different classes using it. Obviously cloth wouldn't suit a hunter at all. But it probably makes more sense lorewise for shaman to be leather as well.

[huth]

I'm assuming somehow the influence of the former LK helm did it but yeah, there's no reasoning behind it. Might make sense if Zovaal was doing it knowing he's losing out of spite but that also is a bit too similar to someone else(Sargeras stabbing azeroth).

It's especially nonsensical since he's supposedly purging the Scourge. What's the point of doing that and then dumping a giant dragon Necromancer on the place?

I don't get why people are so enamored with Galakrond coming back anyway. I'm not really getting the feeling Blizzard actually cares about him much as anything other than the past of the Aspects.

[Ethule]

I'm a bit confused as to why he would raise Galakrond. That doesn't seem to serve any real purpose.

Listen don't you know you make a sick cinematic that makes very little sense and then retcon everything after?

No going based on the whispers of ilg I had speculated that The Golden One was Anduin and the frozen Throne was the vacant vacant Throne. And that the crown of light will bring only darkness meaning that he is a slave to the will of the light forces.... I don't really wanna go through the entire explanation considering it won't happen lmao

[huth]

Listen don't you know you make a sick cinematic that makes very little sense and then retcon everything after?

No going based on the whispers of ilg I had speculated that The Golden One was Anduin and the frozen Throne was the vacant vacant Throne. And that the crown of light will bring only darkness meaning that he is a slave to the will of the light forces.... I don't really wanna go through the entire explanation considering it won't happen lmao

Of course it won't happen because the whole thing doesn't make a lick of sense even by itself.

[Civciv]

Idk why people want to see Galakrond... Dude got beaten by proto drakes. Weaker than onyxia

[Catastrophy349]

I'm waiting for the actual 10.0 announcement to have nothing at all to do with Dragons. As exciting as it is reading through all of these leaks, I'm also trying to be realistic and save myself from disappointment. Truthfully, I'll be happy with any direction they go as long as it WOWs me. If I watch the cinematic/features trailer and don't feel HYPE then it's whatever, I'll still play it because I'm a WoW addict.

[Ersula]

Shadowlands is a low budget expansion compared to BFA. If the next expansion is the same, it's over. They will be working on a new expansion for a long time, a year or three.

People really don't understand how this game is made. The model is to release a new expansion every 2 years, like always & that model still works: Look at FFXIV. And secondly, expansions don't really have a budget, they have operating costs: For example, they don't suddenly layoff a bunch of employees when the expansion is released, like studios would do with a static release. The scope of an expansion is more the result of management, not budget.

You could point to a bunch of venture capitalists cashing out in 2018 affecting production, but that's not the same thing as "budget"

- - - Updated - - -

I'm waiting for the actual 10.0 announcement to have nothing at all to do with Dragons. As exciting as it is reading through all of these leaks, I'm also trying to be realistic and save myself from disappointment. Truthfully, I'll be happy with any direction they go as long as it WOWs me. If I watch the cinematic/features trailer and don't feel HYPE then it's whatever, I'll still play it because I'm a WoW addict.

The wow teeter-totter of "Needing to make new characters to keep people interested" vs "people don't like our new characters lets just do fanservice"

So many games do this thing where they throw out the most barebones design of a character to see what sticks under slim chance it will resonate with people, when you want to just tell them "of course no one liked this new character, you didn't spend any time developing them." Netherrealm & Gearbox do this a lot.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Idk why people want to see Galakrond... Dude got beaten by proto drakes. Weaker than onyxia

He’s a big, mindless dragon. He’d be worse than cataclysm deathwing, and he was horrible.