Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Zantera]

I mean as bad as the next expansion might end up, they have WotLK coming which will be massive and make up for that.

And I am 100% sure they will have some expensive and overpriced special bundles, even more than the TBC Deluxe (which, to my shame, I did buy).

I think Wotlk Classic will have hype initially but I think it will die down pretty fast and expose a lot of people to the glaring problems with that expansion, 2 of the worst raid tiers of all time. Naxx will be especially bad now considering a lot of people who played Classic actually got to do Naxx (which wasn't necessarily the case in original Wotlk) so people will have to spend months doing a boring raid they already did before. Ulduar and ICC will probably bring some hype but you also got the god awful Trial of the Crusader sandwiched in between.

[Teriz]

The fact MoP was the only expansion to stop WoW decline by around 8M active users. Not only that this expansion had more features combined then last 3-4 expansions.
Not only that they were top tier features. Timeless Isle is still the best end game isle they created to this day.
Not only that Isle of Thunder was proper made zone that even made time gating felt like fun. due the fact all the realm had to join in to unlock it.
200 man Oondasta.

New Class, New Race, Challenge Mode Dungeons, flex raiding, Farm, Pet Battles, Scenarios, Brawlers Guild, Proving Grounds, BMAH, World bosses return, Best Raids since ages since MoP. (ToT, SoO) and the list goes on.

Only people who says that MoP was shit haven't played the expansion at all, it was beloven till the end. (Hated at first then loved) only thing people complained on was the amount of dailies 5.0 had.

WOTLK Being most popular doesnt mean it was the best or the most favourited? Hell if you look at graphs the decline started mid WOTLK and only reason it bounced back to 12M was because Cataclysm was announced. But hey WOTLK best expansion right?

No lies detected. MoP was really a fantastic expansion. You had morons ridiculing it at first, but over time, people loved it. The love for MoP only intensified during and after the dumpster fire that WoD became, and has gotten really strong after BFA and Shadowlands.

WoW needs a MoP-style expansion, period.

[Sondrelk]

I think Wotlk Classic will have hype initially but I think it will die down pretty fast and expose a lot of people to the glaring problems with that expansion, 2 of the worst raid tiers of all time. Naxx will be especially bad now considering a lot of people who played Classic actually got to do Naxx (which wasn't necessarily the case in original Wotlk) so people will have to spend months doing a boring raid they already did before. Ulduar and ICC will probably bring some hype but you also got the god awful Trial of the Crusader sandwiched in between.

Don't forget the most important part, that being that you can still play most of the salient parts of WotLK perfectly fine today. You miss out on specific talent builds and the Undercity attack scenario, but other than that WotLK is still perfectly preserved to this day, even more so than TBC which at least was still trying to preserve some of the old mentality where raids were only the ending to the game.
WotLK meanwhile is the game that cemented the raid or die mentality that starved the open world for years until Legion brought some of it back.

[therewillbedragons]

My Dragon Senses are tingling this week!

[Cosmic Janitor]

I think the chance that they drop the next expansion announcement in the week in which we get so see the end of SL is miniscule at best. Your senses are probably fried from all the BS leaks here .

[Sondrelk]

No lies detected. MoP was really a fantastic expansion. You had morons ridiculing it at first, but over time, people loved it. The love for MoP only intensified during and after the dumpster fire that WoD became, and has gotten really strong after BFA and Shadowlands.

WoW needs a MoP-style expansion, period.

An expansion with massive timegating grinds and a horribly maligned system that players were shoehorned into? Or maybe the part where the talent system took a massive step away from its RPG roots into being more of an action game?

MoP did lots of stuff really well. But it's hardly the perfect specimen with only minor niggles players make it out to be. The problems were massive.


It's easy to forget, but SL is pretty damn good if you try to forget the droughts and focus squarely on how each individual patch worked.
You start out with loads of stuff to do in the open world, a solid intro raid, and a currency system that is almost completely skippable for anyone that doesn't care about cosmetics combined with the buyable cosmetics being varied and high quality.

Torghast is annoying if you don't play one of the few fun specs, and the covenants should have probably been much less restrictive. But discounting the drought they would have been fairly tame all things considered, especially when considering a more stable patch cadence would have made the complaints obsolete long before we got to this point.

[Revamp Man]

MoP but
Daily grind replaced with emissaries
CM replaced with m+ and rewards at +5, +10, and +15
Raid modes replaced with current system
Monks made a hero class (because having to re-level was an issue that made a lot of players avoid the class)

“Pandas are goofy”
Says the guy playing a sentient cow

“The story is too cartoony and silly”
Ignoring pretty much every storyline

[Osmeric]

I think Wotlk Classic will have hype initially but I think it will die down pretty fast

I liked Wrath. I will not be playing Wrath Classic. Been there, done that.

[Revamp Man]

An expansion with massive timegating grinds and a horribly maligned system that players were shoehorned into? Or maybe the part where the talent system took a massive step away from its RPG roots into being more of an action game?

MoP did lots of stuff really well. But it's hardly the perfect specimen with only minor niggles players make it out to be. The problems were massive.


It's easy to forget, but SL is pretty damn good if you try to forget the droughts and focus squarely on how each individual patch worked.
You start out with loads of stuff to do in the open world, a solid intro raid, and a currency system that is almost completely skippable for anyone that doesn't care about cosmetics combined with the buyable cosmetics being varied and high quality.

Torghast is annoying if you don't play one of the few fun specs, and the covenants should have probably been much less restrictive. But discounting the drought they would have been fairly tame all things considered, especially when considering a more stable patch cadence would have made the complaints obsolete long before we got to this point.

MoP had issues that were 90% fixed by the final patch just like shadowlands

It’s seen as great because it’s the last full expansion that overall was an expansion

We went into it and gained permanent power
The patches had us doing stuff in leveling areas
It had a story tied to the past and didn’t jump the shark
It didn’t add 10 systems that would be abandoned next patch
The power gap wasn’t insane

It definitely had issues at the beginning though that I can’t deny like world bosses on a 8 day spawn timer

[Sondrelk]

MoP but
Daily grind replaced with emissaries
CM replaced with m+ and rewards at +5, +10, and +15
Raid modes replaced with current system
Monks made a hero class (because having to re-level was an issue that made a lot of players avoid the class)

“Pandas are goofy”
Says the guy playing a sentient cow

“The story is too cartoony and silly”
Ignoring pretty much every storyline

Personally I would go for SL, except:

Covenants removed as a choice with attached power, instead staying as zone specific rewards and open world upgrade system.
Azeroth focused expansion with less disjointed zones and more coherent plot.
Allied races and possibly a new class to drive alt replayability.
Tier sets available.

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MoP had issues that were 90% fixed by the final patch just like shadowlands

It’s seen as great because it’s the last full expansion that overall was an expansion

We went into it and gained permanent power
The patches had us doing stuff in leveling areas
It had a story tied to the past and didn’t jump the shark
It didn’t add 10 systems that would be abandoned next patch
The power gap wasn’t insane

It definitely had issues at the beginning though that I can’t deny like world bosses on a 8 day spawn timer

Definitely. Personally I just find it very lacking in open world content. Flying being available from the start especially undercutting the dailies almost completely.

Once you got into 5.2 it really hit its stride though.

Edit: Should also mention the absolutely awful 14 month drought at the end.

[Archmage Xaxxas]

My Dragon Senses are tingling this week!

I'm holding out faith in you so far sir. Don't get me hopes up now!

[Ersula]

The fact MoP was the only expansion to stop WoW decline by around 8M active users. Not only that this expansion had more features combined then last 3-4 expansions.

That's pretty impressive, considering its not true & also WoW's height was exactly one expansion earlier. The decline during MoP was even more severe than in Cataclysm, mostly because MoP's endgame was notoriously grindy bullshit dailies & put off most casual players. The Dailies in MoP were so bullshit they had to avoid building the endgame around dailies during the following expansion. What expansion are you even talking about? "More features than the last 3 expansions combined?" What? A farm? Challenge mode? 3-man dungeons? Only one of those features is still in the game & it had to be massively revamped in order to even be fun.

[Syegfryed]

MoP had issues that were 90% fixed by the final patch just like shadowlands

isn't like this on all expansions, they onyl fix the issues in the final patch to say they finnaly learned what to do.

MOP was 10x better than every other expansion anyway, at least there the classes that we played didn't feel totally dogshit, they ruined the classes with the "fantasy class bs.

I remember back then i could spend an entire day playing bgs and was fun, no joke, i leveled 2-3 characters from 10 to 70-85 by doing random bgs alone, today i do one bg and i want to shot my left nut with a bazooka.

If the classes you play feel bad its cuts half of the expansion enjoyment.

[Hitei]

isn't like this on all expansions, they onyl fix the issues in the final patch to say they finnaly learned what to do.

MOP was 10x better than every other expansion anyway, at least there the classes that we played didn't feel totally dogshit, they ruined the classes with the "fantasy class bs.

I remember back then i could spend an entire day playing bgs and was fun, no joke, i leveled 2-3 characters from 10 to 70-85 by doing random bgs alone, today i do one bg and i want to shot my left nut with a bazooka.

If the classes you play feel bad its cuts half of the expansion enjoyment.

I guess if you like homogenized garbage, more power to you.

[Syegfryed]

I guess if you like homogenized garbage, more power to you.

you talk like today isn't garbage, lmao

[Relapses]

you talk like today isn't garbage, lmao

How dare anybody like a thing you don't like. Or worse, not like a thing you like!

[Syegfryed]

How dare anybody like a thing you don't like. Or worse, not like a thing you like!

you didn't say that to the guy who said mop was garbage, funny the double standard isn't

[Alanar]

I liked Wrath. I will not be playing Wrath Classic. Been there, done that.

I would only maybe play at the start, cus dks 8.0 were hilarious and I can play specs such as blood dps that is way more fub then what we have now. But outside these shenigens, nothing really shines throught..

Ulduar?, Arthas? Who cares.

[Chickat]

They have almost always tested a final minor patch of one expansion & the alpha to the next expansion simultaneously. Just a perk of making the Beta & PTR different clients.

My Allied Race sense is tingling because we're mirroring 7.3 & 7.3.5: They'd only be rushing out 9.2.5 if there's an additional pre-order bonus coming with it & if that's the case they would also need to announce the Expansion pre-order before 9.2.5 can be datamined.

Oh thats a good point. Vender encrypted ptr next week along with an announcement for a wow whats next stream. 9.2.5 preorder bonus revealed with ptr going up that week. Alpha going up in late March or early April.

- - - Updated - - -

I want a new class, preferably ranged with healer spec.

As for races, as much as i would love more of them i'd prefer if they stick to the 24(!) we have right now and just keep on expanding their customization options.

I agree, no more allied races. Add 1 more neutral race, and expand current races customization. A class is a must for me to be truly hyped.

[Cosmic Janitor]

That's pretty impressive, considering its not true & also WoW's height was exactly one expansion earlier. The decline during MoP was even more severe than in Cataclysm, mostly because MoP's endgame was notoriously grindy bullshit dailies & put off most casual players

The peak at expansion launch has been a reoccuring phenomenon that we can pretty much asume to be a constant in every expansion since WoW's factual decline in late Wrath. Both MoP and WoD had a rise back to 10ish million subs back then.

As for the decline, I'm not so sure. I haven't done the proper math, but by eyeballing it the decline is pretty much similar if we exclude the meteoric rise at each expansion's last data point, as that pretty much has to be attested to the next expansion in line. Even ignoring that last point (which would also favor MoP), MoP seems to have a slightly less steep trajectory. This can be mostly attributed to the plateau in the middle of the expansion and the generally longer duration of MoP. I'd say pitch_MoP>=pitch_Cata (both of them obviously being negative overall).

https://imgur.com/gallery/EB2Tzyh

Btw, I have very little love for MoP, as I loathed the fucking pandaren and their silly culture. To me they are still nothing more than a rather lame joke. But even then, MoP didn't hurt the game (at the time) much more than Cata did. Edit: Which kinda makes me wonder what Blizzard will do after WotLK, like seriously, who in their right mind is hyped to be playing Cata again? O.o