Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[TheFirstOnes]

Sure, Sargeras which has been teased for 20 years has not more going for him than the Jailer.

The heck, even Denathrius has more going than the Jailer and both have been introduced in the same expansion.

Yeah, idrc about books or indirect influences about him, I'm talking about a game where every fucking WoW villain suffers the same ole' generic lack of development trope.

[Chickat]

Two Two Two

You want more twos?

Yes, the servers will go up at 2:22pm EST. Est because its the coolest timezone. Im not biased.

[Nyel]

If you "didn't care," why the fuck are you so quick to laugh at people trying to provide reasonable explanations for content droughts? Obviously a general poor sense of planning is the bigger endemic issue but I really don't see the point in outright rejecting plausibility of other pandemic-related factors in the development of this expansion. It's just so boring to see take after take that basically amounts to "Blizzard sucks and you're a simp for even questioning this universal truth." I'm over it. I'd hope the people who self-professedly "don't care" would get over it, too.

- - - Updated - - -



Ironically, the /r/wowcirclejerk unjerk thread is the most positive WoW community on the website.

COVID after two years is no reasonable explanation for the crisis Blizzard is in. That argument was already weak one year ago, right now it’s ridiculous and completely out of touch. That’s why I was denouncing that response, because it’s nonsense.

I didn’t even say anything about Blizzard. I just responded to the hype argument from another person and tried to emphasize on how we could evaluate that later on.

By the way, not caring about Shadowlands doesn’t translate to not caring about WoW.

[Chickat]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...1#post53587601

To be fair its close enough that I will at least entertain the idea that it could be real.

Nvm some contractor would never know all this info or dates. Its fake.

[TheFirstOnes]

"SARGERAS HAD SO MUCH BUILD UP"

He didn't. He has like 3 lines in actuality, and he was rewritten 90 fucking times in the old lore.

[Nyel]

Yeah, idrc about books or indirect influences about him, I'm talking about a game where every fucking WoW villain suffers the same ole' generic lack of development trope.

Sargeras didn’t suffer from that. Neither did Gul‘dan. Nor Deathwing. Heck, even as butchered the N‘zoth storyline was, he was build up for years and years. Nothing you can say about the Jailer who came and went without leaving any impression.

- - - Updated - - -

"SARGERAS HAD SO MUCH BUILD UP"

He didn't. He has like 3 lines in actuality, and he was rewritten 90 fucking times in the old lore.

This is just nonsense. He was teased in the very first novels decades ago and so was his presence in the very first games. He was the inevitable main villain until Legion. Zovaal didn’t even last as long as Gul‘dan.

[Dracullus]

Yes, the servers will go up at 2:22pm EST. Est because its the coolest timezone. Im not biased.

EST coolest timezone? CET got expac releases on midnight (that's half of expac release magic for me) and patches ready very early in the morning (I don't know how they are doing it, must beta test is somewhere else day before).

To be fair its close enough that I will at least entertain the idea that it could be real.

But seriously, don't fall on cheap tricks like this people. Let's have some standards even with fake leaks.

COVID after two years is no reasonable explanation for the crisis Blizzard is in. That argument was already weak one year ago, right now it’s ridiculous and completely out of touch. That’s why I was denouncing that response, because it’s nonsense.

So you seriously see no connection between droughts and covid, huh? You don't grasp idea that events from past has consequences now? 8.1/7.1 was revealed like within month from release and 9.1 3 months after SL launch because they said to themselves "good job lads, let's do nothing for 2 months and drink all that milk we have stolen"?

Obviously reality is much more complicated and of course covid had more impact on 9.0 than 9.2. There were protests, at some point they decided to scrap 9.3 and had to rethink other patches. Maybe the even moved 9.2 date to decrease 9.2->10.0 gap, PTR was suspiciously advanced since first build (of course not parts depending on feedback/data from people).

[Relapses]

COVID after two years is no reasonable explanation for the crisis Blizzard is in. That argument was already weak one year ago, right now it’s ridiculous and completely out of touch. That’s why I was denouncing that response, because it’s nonsense.

I didn’t even say anything about Blizzard. I just responded to the hype argument from another person and tried to emphasize on how we could evaluate that later on.

By the way, not caring about Shadowlands doesn’t translate to not caring about WoW.

AFAIK, they're still working at home using an entirely different work pipeline than they would have used in-office. You'd think after two years they'd get better at it but I don't see the point of speculating cynically about the internal dynamics of Blizzard. For all we know, part of the reason they're taking so long is so that they can ensure there are checks and balances in place to prevent the same thing from happening in 10.0. So while C19 is a pretty shitty excuse, it's not entirely outside the realm of reason.

Also "not caring about Shadowlands doesn't translate into not caring about WoW" is the bullshit that Bellendular built an entire YouTube empire of cynicism on. I don't believe it for a second. When I don't care about something, I stop engaging with it entirely. I don't go to forums for a product I'm not engaged with to proudly profess to the world how that product no longer engages me. (Or in Baldular's case, make five or six videos about how Blizzard's API "prove" Shadowlands sucks.) It's weird that for WoW this behavior is not only welcomed, but expected and embraced. It's so strange.

[Nask]

COVID after two years is no reasonable explanation for the crisis Blizzard is in. That argument was already weak one year ago, right now it’s ridiculous and completely out of touch. That’s why I was denouncing that response, because it’s nonsense.

I didn’t even say anything about Blizzard. I just responded to the hype argument from another person and tried to emphasize on how we could evaluate that later on.

By the way, not caring about Shadowlands doesn’t translate to not caring about WoW.

So COVID wasn't a thing one year ago or what? Let's take something other than Blizzard. Redditor's baby, Endwalker, got delayed and got content cut because of COVID and that was released late last year? The fact that you are that ignorant about how much COVID affected game development is funny and kinda sad.

[TheFirstOnes]

Sargeras didn’t suffer from that. Neither did Gul‘dan. Nor Deathwing. Heck, even as butchered the N‘zoth storyline was, he was build up for years and years. Nothing you can say about the Jailer which came and went without leaving any impression.

- - - Updated - - -



This is just nonsense. He was teased in the very first novels decades ago and so was his presence in the very first games. He was the inevitable main villain until Legion. Zovaal didn’t even last as long as Gul‘dan.

Gul'dan we actually see do shit, same with Azshara. They're fine. Sargeras IN THE GAME however has like...1 cinematic of him proving ANYTHING, and like 90 other things that are either referenced IN BOOKS OR OTHERWISE, most of what Sargeras has done IN THE GAME ITSELF was be binded by his brethren, have his army FAIL horribly in tryna obtain Eonar's essence, lose Argus and have the Unmaker's nascent death empowered magics used not only against the Dark Titan himself, but have Sargeras' manifested power influence also fly alongside the OTHER part of Argus' power and fuck up the Arbiter for Zovaal to infuse it with and regain both his power, and potentially some extra raw power due to that Argus/Sargeras ordeal etc.

Hell, EVEN THEN, THAT GOT RELEGATED TO ZOVAAL DOUBLE FUCKING SARGERAS OVER NOW!!! So...Sargeras IN THE GAME has him failing to crush us while he's getting pulled by the Pantheon of Order's combined magic binding ritual, etc. BUT HE ALSO CAUSED LESS DAMAGE TO AZEROTH WHEN STABBING IT THAN DEATHWING!!! AND NOW ZOVAAL IS GOING TO FUCKING HARM AZEROTH TO CLOSE TO DEATH AND PERMANENTLY FUCK OVER THE FIRST ONES' DESIGN!!!

[Chickat]

EST coolest timezone? CET got expac releases on midnight (that's half of expac release magic for me) and patches ready very early in the morning (I don't know how they are doing it, must beta test is somewhere else day before).



But seriously, don't fall on cheap tricks like this people. Let's have some standards even with fake leaks.

Yeah, I hadn't even read it, I was just willing to entertain the idea. The whole post is terrible and unbelievable.

[Varodoc]

Gul'dan we actually see do shit, same with Azshara. They're fine. Sargeras IN THE GAME however has like...1 cinematic of him proving ANYTHING, and like 90 other things that are either referenced IN BOOKS OR OTHERWISE, most of what Sargeras has done IN THE GAME ITSELF was be binded by his brethren, have his army FAIL horribly in tryna obtain Eonar's essence, lose Argus and have the Unmaker's nascent death empowered magics used not only against the Dark Titan himself, but have Sargeras' manifested power influence also fly alongside the OTHER part of Argus' power and fuck up the Arbiter for Zovaal to infuse it with and regain both his power, and potentially some extra raw power due to that Argus/Sargeras ordeal etc.

Hell, EVEN THEN, THAT GOT RELEGATED TO ZOVAAL DOUBLE FUCKING SARGERAS OVER NOW!!! So...Sargeras IN THE GAME has him failing to crush us while he's getting pulled by the Pantheon of Order's combined magic binding ritual, etc. BUT HE ALSO CAUSED LESS DAMAGE TO AZEROTH WHEN STABBING IT THAN DEATHWING!!! AND NOW ZOVAAL IS GOING TO FUCKING HARM AZEROTH TO CLOSE TO DEATH AND PERMANENTLY FUCK OVER THE FIRST ONES' DESIGN!!!

Can you ever make an argument without going on and on about "ZOMG POWER LEVELS!!! INFINITE POEWR LEVELS!!! REALITY BREAKING 10000 OMG!!!!"

Sargeras objectively is better than the Jailer, since he was established as the main villain of the Burning Legion and orchestrator of the Burning Crusade since WC3.

Literally nobody but you cares that the Janitor can blow up stuff quicker than Sargeras or whatever Dragon Ball nonsense you're talking about.

[TriHard]

9.2 right before Elden Ring? That's ballsy

[Catastrophy349]

Reading this thread is nice

[Sondrelk]

9.2 right before Elden Ring? That's ballsy

Is it? Is it that big an overlap between the two game audiences?

[Makabreska]

COVID after two years is no reasonable explanation for the crisis Blizzard is in. That argument was already weak one year ago, right now it’s ridiculous and completely out of touch. That’s why I was denouncing that response, because it’s nonsense.

I didn’t even say anything about Blizzard. I just responded to the hype argument from another person and tried to emphasize on how we could evaluate that later on.

By the way, not caring about Shadowlands doesn’t translate to not caring about WoW.

Not sure why are you so resilient to accept that COVID is STILL affecting Blizz and game development in general. Games like God of War Ragnarok or Ghostwire Tokyo were postponed to 2022 due to it. Go check that article to see for yourself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact..._game_industry

[TriHard]

Is it? Is it that big an overlap between the two game audiences?

Yeah, the Dark Souls and WoW gamers overlap quite a bit, WoW players love the souls games, but obviously I do not have an exact %

[Hitei]

Is it? Is it that big an overlap between the two game audiences?

No. Not any more than literally any other video game.

[Sondrelk]

I guess now that 9.2 has a firm release date I guess we can start expecting the 10.0 announcement and/or trailer.

I am going to make the assumption we will know at least when 10.0 will be announced by the end of March, but I would love if it got announced maybe a week or two after Mythic has been released.

- - - Updated - - -

No. Not any more than literally any other video game.

I suppose it might be a more pronounced overlap than the one between WoW and the new Horizon game, what with Elden Ring being a multiplayer game to some extent.

[Archmage Xaxxas]

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.

yeah. this was months ago so i have no idea if anything has changed since then, but that was how it was when i saw it.
you couldn't even join group with opposite faction using normal invite to group, everything had to happen through group finder apply/invite ui

a couple other things i forgot to mention:

Main city is on border of green/black zones, shared by both factions
huge gate style entrance with draconic/carved stone style appearance. same architecture as the structure in center of map. was one huge mega-city in the past but the part between the tower and current town is destroyed/ruins and is part of the center zone open world area

Did not see a single mention of sylvanas or tyrande but many story and quest elements were not implemented

Blue, Red, and Bronze zones were really barren and didn't have much content in them yet. Green and Black were more fleshed out. Green is the first zone you enter after the intro quest/scenario (which was not implemented)

alright y'all, i drew a beautiful map from memory for you. please don't nft it.

A - players arrive here after intro scenario
B - grove that is the source of power green dragons + wrathion are using to heal land. players turn in their AP here. there is a dungeon here where players defend the grove against waves of enemies, black morass style.
C - main town
D - XL wyrmrest tower with torghast boss rush style choose your next room scenario
E - caverns of time style place where first raid happens. starts outdoors and moves inside for second half. infinite dragonflight are the enemies.
F - zul'farrak style outdoor troll dungeon.
G - mountain with nexus/oculus style structure built on it. will be a dungeon.
H - giant scar that runs from edge of town, across tower, into blue zone. neterstorm/twilight looking stuff.

didn't get a good luck at red dragon zone. its separated from the main landmass.

don't know what's in the big island off east cost.

Here's a fun recompilation of therewillbedragons's 'leaks'. I do find these ones kind of interesting, they're keeping up their claim lol

The continent/landmass/islands seems fun!