Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Super Dickmann]

Out of curiosity, what expansion would you like? Implicitly, you seem to be suggesting a world revamp.

Yrel A'dal Qaeda Invasion and/or World Revamp would be my most preferred choices. Storywise Cataclysm's revamp is my absolute favorite post-Vanilla story content so I've a strong bias to more of that.

[Syegfryed]

Why would they need to corrupt him? He's already fairly villainous.

Because Its Danuser and his gang, always expect the worse and the most nonsense things

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Yrel A'dal Qaeda Invasion and/or World Revamp would be my most preferred choices. Storywise Cataclysm's revamp is my absolute favorite post-Vanilla story content so I've a strong bias to more of that.

I am rather interested in the Lightbound plot, though I admittedly hope they don't become villains right away.

As for a world revamp, I'd say my interest personally depends on what kind of revamp it is. There's a few different suggestions for how it could be achieved, and I figure that content is very important.

There's a good chance we'll get both of those, though, given the Lightforged Undead waiting around as potential ticking time bombs in the middle of Lordaeron, which Turalyon also has his eyes on and the Scarlet Crusade are apparently resurgent. However, I actually am doubtful the Scarlet Crusade would end up as part of the Light bloc since they also doubt the whole Naaru resurrection Calia underwent and write it into their conspiracies.

[Triceron]

Why would they need to corrupt him? He's already fairly villainous.

It seems like they were going to use him for Fall of Deathwing raid, but replaced him with Ultraxion. They probably didn't have the budget to put into creating a full new 5-headed Dragon model for the encounter, which is kinda said considering practically every boss in that raid was a generic or reused model except for Deathwing.

That's the only real reason why he was 'left alive' in the lore, since it was supposed to tie straight back into the raid where you kill him.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

This image just screams "world boss" to me:




It would be a nice little tie-in to how certain dragons were world bosses back in Vanilla WoW days.

[Vakir]

A'dal Qaeda

God dammit.

But yeah my vote is a revamp. I don't believe the present Blizzard is ambitious enough.

I expect Light stuff but instead bullshit surrounding Calia that nobody asked for. She feels like the next Kairozdormu in terms of a book character inserted to incite bullshit.

[AngerFork]

Are you unfamiliar with Hearthstone? They've released a gazillion expansions at this point, always on time.

I am quite familiar with Hearthstone & they do tend to have their expansions out on time, but I'm also well aware that they are working for a company which has had massive employee turnover issues over the last couple of years alongside a major acquisition that is underway (which while it may not affect current policies is absolutely on the mind of employees). I'm also well aware that they have been adding in new modes in recent times such as Mercenaries. Plus, the team absolutely has high hopes for this specific expansion as per tweets from devs like Daniel Duffin.

With that in mind, it's easy to see where even a team that is consistently on time & on point might want an extra couple of days to ensure everything is at the quality level they need it to be. It's not a major delay either, just a couple days.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

This image just screams "world boss" to me:




It would be a nice little tie-in to how certain dragons were world bosses back in Vanilla WoW days.

The return of world bosses sure isn't something I'd oppose. I'd love to get my ass handed to me by that fucker.

[Myradin]

...tune in to find out what they are!

Also, yeah, they took the best mystery box they had, the Old Gods, and demystified and defanged them THE MOST of ANYTHING.

To the point that their most frantic adjacent fan is in absolute denial.

They keep giving answers to all the stuff that should be mysterious and outside our understanding, but continues to play coy with very "human" and real connections when it should be the opposite. It's like I'm asking my neighbor for answers to a test and he passes me a copy of fucking Ulysses.

I think this is a great way to describe the current issues with the writing.

So much time explaining how the mechanics of the multiverse work, often leading to their own issues, and not enough time telling us why people are doing things and why we should care.

[Triceron]

They don't tend to do it on time. They always do it on time.

Hearthstone is a nimble little game, pretty uncomplicated and straightforward. There is no reason to believe the team would suddenly ask for a very specific 2 extra days to prepare an announcement, lol. I could maybe see a game release being pushed because delays and polish, but not an announcement.

The most compelling reason they'd time an announcement is usually tied to competition and trying to take the steam away from them.

So if we really want to find a reason why they're pushing back any release or announcement, then we just have to look at what's being released around the same time.

They've been doing this sort of thing for decades now. I still remember when they announced WotLK Alpha testing in the same week that Age of Conan released. Everyone I knew was talking about how hype Conan was gonna be, then something as simple as an alpha test got everyone talking about WoW again.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The return of world bosses sure isn't something I'd oppose. I'd love to get my ass handed to me by that fucker.

I remember somebody proposed the concept of 1 world boss for the entire expansion: every new major content patch (new raid tier) Blizzard would just increase the HP and damage done by the world boss to accommodate the increased item level, and also add a new mechanic to the world boss for each content patch.


I feel like that would work perfectly with a Chromatus like charcater: a new mechanic for each head.

[Makorus]

Part of me doesn't want Chromatus in the game because it's the definition of "written by a child". He is Medan as a dragon.

"Oh yeah he is super strong and he also has EVERY element and he has a head of EVERY dragon and and and he is UNKILLABLE and he is better than the aspects at their own respective dragonflight magic! he is the ultimate dwagon!"

Now Galakrond would be a cool setpiece boss if implemented correctly in terms of scale.

[Edward Wu]

The return of world bosses sure isn't something I'd oppose. I'd love to get my ass handed to me by that fucker.

The return? Where did they go? SL had multiple world bosses and they were all pushovers. Lag spikes was the deadliest ability for those boss encounters (mainly at the start of SL).

[AOL Instant Messenger]

The return? Where did they go? SL had multiple world bosses and they were all pushovers. Lag spikes was the deadliest ability for those boss encounters (mainly at the start of SL).

I suppose I didn't say this the way I meant to: the return of real world bosses, think Azuregos.

- - - Updated - - -

Part of me doesn't want Chromatus in the game because it's the definition of "written by a child". He is Medan as a dragon.

"Oh yeah he is super strong and he also has EVERY element and he has a head of EVERY dragon and and and he is UNKILLABLE and he is better than the aspects at their own respective dragonflight magic! he is the ultimate dwagon!"

Now Galakrond would be a cool setpiece boss if implemented correctly in terms of scale.

I would say that the rules applying to villains are generally less strict than the rules applying to heroes.

[huth]

Keyword Dragon

LDAMWARS, nu. 6 & 8

You're going to have a blaise figuring this one out.

I dunno, Hydrodynamics are cool and all, but the guy is a tad old by now.

[Makabreska]

I suppose I didn't say this the way I meant to: the return of real world bosses, think Azuregos.

I don't think we can expect them to be back, given how Oondasta turned out to be.

[Vakir]

I would say that the rules applying to villains are generally less strict than the rules applying to heroes.

This. Pretty much all Warcraft villains are extra as hell in terms of relative power and intimidation while they're the focus.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I don't think we can expect them to be back, given how "well" Oondasta turned out to be.

That was all the way back in MoP, frankly, so I'd imagine that won't apply.

[Makorus]

That was all the way back in MoP, frankly, so I'd imagine that won't apply.

I mean, the main problem is that they have to be loot pinatas, because world bosses just can't have any kind of meaningful difficulty, because it's entirely uncoordinated, and have the people joining are probably people who AFK or have no idea how to play their class.

[AngerFork]

They don't tend to do it on time. They always do it on time.

Hearthstone is a nimble little game, pretty uncomplicated and straightforward. There is no reason to believe the team would suddenly ask for a very specific 2 extra days to prepare an announcement, lol. I could maybe see a game release being pushed because delays and polish, but not an announcement.

Absolutely there is reason to believe that. A lot can happen in two days: bug fixes, getting the last interview in, getting a sign off because a manager was on vacation before something was approved, giving a speaker who has a sore throat/weak voice some time to recover and/or find a replacement, or for that matter just trying to get an update out while dealing with a server issue. I feel the real key here is to remember how suddenly this announcement changed via tweet yesterday. This wasn't an early delay like we had for SL launch, this was the day before. If it were for something like a 9.2.5 announcement, we would have had a bit more notice as that isn't a last minute thing.