Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Stay strong my friend, you are not alone! #TeamWorldRevamp Assemble!

I'm frankly drinking the kool-aid here. I really want a world revamp regardless of the likelihood. I stand by the revampists!

[Chickat]

Possible next expansions:

Dragon Isles
Lightbound Invasion
Undermine
Empire of Dragons

Anything else?

Emerald dream. One could say that and Azeroth are both different worlds in a sense.

[Pheraz]

So today, if the good guild guys kill the last three bosses, we see the last vid?

[huth]

He doesn't need to mention the limitations

But he did, and got them wrong. That's the point.

[Lahis]

Yeah and keep in mind there's a high chance 9.2.5 gets unveiled and put on the PTR this week as well.

Hoping for some fresh world content to keep things exciting until April 19th, like character customization and new Allied Races / Heritage Armour.

Why do you think 9.2.5 would hqve content? No SL .5 pqtch has had new content, just system fixes.

[TomatoBisque]

no need to argue, I was definitely under the impression that xfaction was a 10.0 feature

the version I played still had shadowlands logon/splashscreen, and the loading screens for any new areas were just the generic placeholder one (dwarf on gryphon). there's likely a name and logo at this point, there was just no trace of it in the build I played. lips are very tight, the only piece of information I've been able to get since my hands-on experience was "announcement this week".

even blizzard devs not on WoW know the name of the expac, there's zero chance you played an internal build and don't know the name

Also Ion has said they wanted crossfaction to be in 9.2 but it proved to be too difficult to get out that early and was pushed back to 9.2.5

[Lady Atia]

Do they replace this one: https://www.wowhead.com/item=189845/...ron?bonus=6805 ?

If so, I gotta say I'd rather have the model that fits the rest of the zone loot (and therefore my tier sets) than a random pimped vanilla item. The lordaeron shields would have made for nice cosmetic bonus loot, like the shaman set in SoO.

You can still get the old appereance from another shield, so nothing is lost.

- - - Updated - - -

Its weird because there's plenty of items in WoW were the model doesn't match the name or description. Why start now?

Because you have to start somewhere - and it's super good that they actually do listen to feedback now, especially in this case.

[Revamp Man]

I mean if we go full tinfoil here
The new shield being a part of next expansion makes sense because we have the scarlet crusade and right now they can claim the throne of lordaeron since
The queen is gone
The horde leaders are mostly gone
The true heir is gone

Interesting possibility of a prepatch

[Sondrelk]

even blizzard devs not on WoW know the name of the expac, there's zero chance you played an internal build and don't know the name

Also Ion has said they wanted crossfaction to be in 9.2 but it proved to be too difficult to get out that early and was pushed back to 9.2.5

Knowing the name of the expansion isn't necessary to make it unless you are designing the logo and such though. The devs would know the stuff directly pertaining to whatever they are making, but the name and logo is never really mentioned in-game.

Random developers wouldn't really have needed to know that this expansion was called Shadowlands just because that is where the expansion took place. It could just as easily been called Veil of Shadows, or Deaths Reckoning, or something equally out there.

[Varodoc]

Why do people here ignore that Turalyon literally said "I'm going to reclaim other holdings of the Alliance of Lordaeron"? New story developments in Lordaeron are inevitable and taken for granted.

No this doesn't mean that Turalyon will start some kind of war btw, especially since Ion literally said the time of faction wars is over and cited Genn (and not Turalyon) as example of some Alliance drama they could explore.

It just means that in 10.0 we could see an Alliance effort to reclaim former lands of Lordaeron, which belong to no one btw. Since the Forsaken fled like cowards and abandoned their own lands.

It's basically free real estate for Turalyon. With the Forsaken gone, Lordaeron is no longer off-limits.

What is more interesting than an Alliance vs. Forsaken (the throng of refugees that are left lol) conflict, is an Alliance vs. Scarlet conflict. Would the zealots of the Crusade embrace or reject Turalyon, one of the original Paladins and heroes of the old Alliance, as well as nobleman of Lordaeron?

[Austilias]

Two terrible expansions in a row - BfA and Shadowlands.

They really need it to hit it out of the park with next expansion.

Some immediate, easy improvements would be getting rid of Hazzikostas and Danuser.

[Vasoka]

Two terrible expansions in a row - BfA and Shadowlands.

They really need it to hit it out of the park with next expansion.

Some immediate, easy improvements would be getting rid of Hazzikostas and Danuser.

And replace them with who, exactly? Danuser yes, he's a complete clown, but there is no one more qualified for a game director than Ion atm - unless you promote Holinka. I absolutely don't want to see some random diversity hire take the reins and shit up the game even more. It's very easy to screech about replacing people, but what comes after when the replacement is even worse - have you considered that little nugget?

[Austilias]

And replace them with who, exactly? Danuser yes, he's a complete clown, but there is no one more qualified for a game director than Ion atm - unless you promote Holinka. I absolutely don't want to see some random diversity hire take the reins and shit up the game even more. It's very easy to screech about replacing people, but what comes after when the replacement is even worse - have you considered that little nugget?

I'm not sure who would replace Ion, but one thing is clear after the past few expansions - people are done with 'World of Systemscraft'.

What this game needs, nearly more than anything else right now, is a half-decent story again (or at least one that isn't completely terrible), so we can see how tied up the joint problem of Danuser and Hazzikostas is.

As many others have said, Ion is fine in raid design. That's his lane, but he needs to stay in it.

Who they should be replaced with is not our problem, but Blizzard's.

[Teriz]

Two terrible expansions in a row - BfA and Shadowlands.

They really need it to hit it out of the park with next expansion.

Some immediate, easy improvements would be getting rid of Hazzikostas and Danuser.

I honestly loved some aspects of BFA; mainly exploring Kul’Tiras, and Zandalar. I didn’t like the new races being locked behind rep walls, I didn’t like the overarching story, I didn’t like N’zoth or Azshara’s treatment, and I disliked the Azerite system.

I did feel that BFA was way better than Shadowlands though.

[Vasoka]

I'm not sure who would replace Ion, but one thing is clear after the past few expansions - people are done with 'World of Systemscraft'.

What this game needs, nearly more than anything else right now, is a half-decent story again (or at least one that isn't completely terrible), so we can see how tied up the joint problem of Danuser and Hazzikostas is.

As many others have said, Ion is fine in raid design. That's his lane, but he needs to stay in it.

Who they should be replaced with is not our problem, but Blizzard's.

It becomes our problem when the new person runs the game into the ground even harder. Danuser can probably be replaced with any RP-er from Argent Dawn though, they'd do a better job.

[micwini]

It would be available though which is the main thing

Only for NA and not for any other region.

[username993720]

Possible next expansions:

Dragon Isles
Lightbound Invasion
Undermine
Empire of Dragons

Anything else?

Dragon Isles and Empire of Dragons is the same thing.
You forgot:
Emerald Dream.
Ancient Kalimdor.
Light vs Void.
Titan Homeworld.

Why would it be the likeliest scenario? Blizzard obviously has more races and classes in the pipeline, so they have to release them at some point.

Classes? As in plural?
Races? As in they're not done?

TherewillbeDragon's leak. He mentions there is no new race or class.

So far, his is the most compelling rumor because he actually predicted Cross Faction and specifically how it worked, 3 days before it was actually announced.

If that turns out to be true, it would be extremely disappointing.

Airship housing, a new continent, and a new class definitely sounds more interesting than the nothing being offered in that leak.

That's not how it works, unfortunately.
More interesting isn't more likely.

Uh, cross factions being a feature of the next expansion has been proven wrong. The leaker doesn’t want to reveal the name of the next expansion. The notion that Blizzard is considering a tank spec for Hunters when they’re struggling with the current three specs? C’mon man.

Hunters used to wear bucklers before vanilla really solidified.

[Syegfryed]

I completely agree.

But hey, WoW needs plenty of things to improve. Better story telling with someone who can keep shit consistent, like a Kevin Feige for the Warcraft universe. More content for casuals end game, not just dumbed down raid content. Actual character progression that isn't parasitic design.

All of it us unfortunately easier said than done, because adding a new race or class adds a ton of work. Thats why we didn't even get a new race in BFA. Allied Races are all just modified existing races. And even then they added no new ones for Shadowlands.

I would want them to double down on making a fantastic 10.0, give me a reason to come back. But I simply doubt it since they cut some core people from all the shit that went down last two years.

new races add ton of work because there was the starting zone and questline, now, this isn't a issue with the allied race system

I don't think 10.0 will be fantastic either, but it need to show something visual or it will be another thurd.3 expansions without a class by example is a red flag

[Triceron]

I'm not sure who would replace Ion, but one thing is clear after the past few expansions - people are done with 'World of Systemscraft'.

What this game needs, nearly more than anything else right now, is a half-decent story again (or at least one that isn't completely terrible), so we can see how tied up the joint problem of Danuser and Hazzikostas is.

As many others have said, Ion is fine in raid design. That's his lane, but he needs to stay in it.

Who they should be replaced with is not our problem, but Blizzard's.

Even though I don't know their internal politics or if he'd be fine for the job, but I say Cory Stockton would be a good runner for that position.

He's lead content designer, and was responsible for some key innovations to WoW like Battle Pets and having worked on the Death Knight's design and mechanics. Dude was lead designer on Ratchet and Clank series back in the day.

I mean the world and quests overall are so underrated, and arguably has always been more important to the silent majority of players than raids ever did. They just never really capitalized on making the open world matter. Its always a one and done. I think they could get some interesting results if they put the Content guy in charge instead of the Encounter designer.

[Marlamin]

This whole "we disabled the shield and are giving it a new model" situation is a bit suspicious. It has no item effect so that can't have broken, there are no apparent visual issues with the old model outside of it not fitting thematically with the name, which is hardly a reason to remove it from loot tables.