Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Raetary]

areas like Stratholme to see if it at least stopped burning one day.

If Stormwind is any indication, that's very doubtful.

Afterall Human buildings (and soil) is very, very flammable and tends to burn for an extraordinarily long time.

[Makabreska]

If Stormwind is any indication, that's very doubtful.

Afterall Human buildings (and soil) is very, very flammable and tends to burn for an extraordinarily long time.

Wasn't it low-key implied that Stratholm keeps burning due to some kind of a magic/curse? At least that's an explanation I tell myself. It gives zone great atmosphere and I would hate it if they started to fix it.

[Sondrelk]

Wasn't it low-key implied that Stratholm keeps burning due to some kind of a magic/curse? At least that's an explanation I tell myself. It gives zone great atmosphere and I would hate it if they started to fix it.

It's certainly a decent explanation if it was just a question of maybe a year, not a decade. I don't care how malevolent the magic is, I cannot envision a scenario in which the flames should be burning anything but a flat plain of ash at this point.

[Makabreska]

It's certainly a decent explanation if it was just a question of maybe a year, not a decade. I don't care how malevolent the magic is, I cannot envision a scenario in which the flames should be burning anything but a flat plain of ash at this point.

I mean, magic can explain anything really. We got plenty of ancient beings that just keep burning constantly. Curse caused the city to sort-of freeze in time shortly after purge. Bam, ez explanation.

[TheFirstOnes]

Based on what?
There is absolutely nothing that indicates that in any way shape or form.

Nor does it make any sense unless you deliberately ignore that Azeroth is a literal baby world and the Shadowlands conflict has been ongoing since the near beginning of time.

Tbf here, nothing indicates otherwise. Also, yeah you’re right. I’m just tryna assume shit lmao

[Nightmare Queen]

You mean... like Argus, Draenor, Elunaria, Nathreza, etc?

Yep! We go to the remains of some planets in Legion too, but those are the ones the Legion got to. Hmm... I thought that Azeroth was the only world left that they haden't conquered?

[TheFirstOnes]

Yep! We go to the remains of some planets in Legion too, but those are the ones the Legion got to. Hmm... I thought that Azeroth was the only world left that they haden't conquered?

7.3 had us go to planets the Legion didn’t get to.

[Sondrelk]

I mean, magic can explain anything really. We got plenty of ancient beings that just keep burning constantly. Curse caused the city to sort-of freeze in time shortly after purge. Bam, ez explanation.

That is a pretty good explanation actually.
Still though, that is not something shown conclusively in-game, much less whether there are efforts to stop that, or even what the general status is of the area surrounding it. In Cata pretty much the entirety of the Western Plaguelands were cleansed, and the effort to cleanse the Eastern Plaguelands were well underway, surely there should be some significant progress on that front, not to mention the repatriation effort from both Forsaken and Human refugees migrating back to their homelands and having a squabble over land partially aggravated by Sylvanas.

[Kiivar86]

Yep! We go to the remains of some planets in Legion too, but those are the ones the Legion got to. Hmm... I thought that Azeroth was the only world left that they haden't conquered?

A member of the Legion, Wrath-Lord Lekos, said Azeroth was the last one standing but we've been to a few planets in Legion that haven't been conquered (Elunaria, Bonich, according to wowpedia). Additionally, in the Illidan novel, Illidan says there are several other worlds left, and Xe'ra confirms this as well, though says Azeroth's the only one worth saving.

I'm sure there's other worlds that they missed somehow. The universe is vast, after all.

[Makabreska]

That is a pretty good explanation actually.
Still though, that is not something shown conclusively in-game, much less whether there are efforts to stop that, or even what the general status is of the area surrounding it. In Cata pretty much the entirety of the Western Plaguelands were cleansed, and the effort to cleanse the Eastern Plaguelands were well underway, surely there should be some significant progress on that front, not to mention the repatriation effort from both Forsaken and Human refugees migrating back to their homelands and having a squabble over land partially aggravated by Sylvanas.

Another easy explanation. Stratholm has concentrated forces of Scourge and Scarlet Crusade that bunkered there too well and made retaking efforts too costly. I mean, Scarlet Monastery also still stands, and it's next to Undercity. So was Black Rock Spire with Old Horde.

[Nyel]

What's wrong with the moon(s)? They seem like a fairly common place to go, particularly in fantasy games.

It's completely out of nowhere. And Final Fantasy XIV is doing basically exactly that. This would be hilarious honestly, but in a very, very negative way, especially so shortly right around FFXIV did it.

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I feel the question of what patch is bigger is kinda pointless though. The only constant with patch sizes is that Blizzard only really has the resources for one big and one small/medium zone per expansion.
Legion had nothing for 7.1, then a small zone in the updated Broken Shore and then a large 8or 3 small technically) with Argus.
BfA had both the small and the large zone in 8.2 with Mechagon and Nazjatar.

Now SL has Korthia, which I have not seen but I have heard is decently ssizeable. So it stands to reason that we are only likely to get a small or medium sized zone.

Of course the wildcard is reused assets zones, which in theory should be easier to make, but in practice could be extra effort when it isnt necessarily worth it.

I didn't start a discussion about which patch is bigger etc. I just said I expect 9.2 to be akin to 8.3 due to various reasons. And then I said 8.3 was quite "light" in comparison to 7.3 or 8.2 as it took place in slightly revamped zones and didn't offer several completely new zones.

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My point was that they said 9.2 would be much bigger than 9.1, and 9.1 is bigger than 8.3. Nothing hard to get here.

Who said that? When was it said? Because I don't recall Ion or any other Blizzard upper tier employee to say that 9.2 is bigger than 9.1. I know they said that it will be very surprising and "epic" or whatever, but I never linked that to the size or content of 9.2, I always imagined it's about the story in 9.2.
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Oh and lol @ people that think the next expansion will be delayed until Q2/23 just so we can possibly have 9.3. That's just hilarious. Y'all are really thinking they're going to keep Shadowlands around for another 24 months?

Q2/23 is WotLK territory. That's the biggest possible Classic release they have available and be sure they're cashing in on it massively. There's no room for a retail expansion.

[Revamp Man]

It's completely out of nowhere. And Final Fantasy XIV is doing basically exactly that. This would be hilarious honestly, but in a very, very negative way, especially so shortly right around FFXIV did it.

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I didn't start a discussion about which patch is bigger etc. I just said I expect 9.2 to be akin to 8.3 due to various reasons. And then I said 8.3 was quite "light" in comparison to 7.3 or 8.2 as it took place in slightly revamped zones and didn't offer several completely new zones.

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Who said that? When was it said? Because I don't recall Ion or any other Blizzard upper tier employee to say that 9.2 is bigger than 9.1. I know they said that it will be very surprising and "epic" or whatever, but I never linked that to the size or content of 9.2, I always imagined it's about the story in 9.2.
________

Oh and lol @ people that think the next expansion will be delayed until Q2/23 just so we can possibly have 9.3. That's just hilarious. Y'all are really thinking they're going to keep Shadowlands around for another 24 months?

Q2/23 is WotLK territory. That's the biggest possible Classic release they have available and be sure they're cashing in on it massively. There's no room for a retail expansion.

9.1 launch mid June
9.2 February
9.3 September
10.0 august

Anyone thinking we aren’t getting 9.3 is under the delusion that we will end the expansion early because they don’t like it

Some use the excuse of the jailer getting to the arbiter in 9.1 when we don’t even know what that means

Keep in mind 8.2 ended the faction war but we got another patch

The next expansion won’t launch until late 2023 all the recent delays did was at most shorten the end of expansion content drought unless you think it somehow killed 9.3 but had no effect on 10.0

[Nyel]

The next expansion won’t launch until late 2023...

???

That would be an expansion delay of just a year and all that because of feels.

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Keep in mind 8.2 ended the faction war but we got another patch

Yeah, because we had two plots going on from the start. Shadowlands from the start only had the Jailer storyline.

[Sondrelk]

???

That would be an expansion delay of just a year and all that because of feels.

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Yeah, because we had two plots going on from the start. Shadowlands from the start only had the Jailer storyline.

You say that about BfA, but honestly the Light v. Void storyline has been showcased just as much as the Old God stuff was in BfA. Let's not forget we have an entire half of a zone dedicated to the Light along with a dungeon boss. The expansion srot of began with Turalyon being made king regent.

If BfA could get away with ditching faction war completely halfway through and substituting a different expansions ending then why can't Shadowlands?

[Revamp Man]

???

That would be an expansion delay of just a year and all that because of feels.

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Yeah, because we had two plots going on from the start. Shadowlands from the start only had the Jailer storyline.

would it though??

25 months from 8.0 to 9.0 with the last end being effected by multiple delays

7 months from 9.0 to 9.1
7 months from 9.1 to 9.2
7 months from 9.2 to 9.3
then you figure alpha for 10.0 about 2 months into 9.3 at best which would be early 2023 then we get at least 5 more months of testing which would end up in late july and then add on a few weeks for prepatch and you get august or september

i mean i understand that in the past the first patch was out faster but we also got like 10 months of the final patch at minimum and suggesting the late 9.1 launch means we wont get 9.3 means you believe that they suffered such delays that they have to scrap the last patch while also at the same time not being behind in 10.0 creation.

also at the launch of bfa we had as much story for what would be the 8.3 patch as we did for nagas in 7.0 and it wasnt expansded until 9.1.5

[TheFirstOnes]

“Who said that? When was it said? Because I don’t recall Ion or any other Blizzard upper tier employee to say that 9.2 is bigger than 9.1. I know they said that it will be very surprising and "epic" or whatever, but I never linked that to the size or content of 9.2, I always imagined it's about the story in 9.2.”

Eh, you’re right in that he said that. But an Azeroth invasion isn’t interesting.

More is going to happen.

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You say that about BfA, but honestly the Light v. Void storyline has been showcased just as much as the Old God stuff was in BfA. Let's not forget we have an entire half of a zone dedicated to the Light along with a dungeon boss. The expansion srot of began with Turalyon being made king regent.

If BfA could get away with ditching faction war completely halfway through and substituting a different expansions ending then why can't Shadowlands?

No no no no no. While I disagree with Nyel, are you seriously of the idea that 9.2 is going to be Light and/or Shadow shit? Are fucking serious?

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???

That would be an expansion delay of just a year and all that because of feels.

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Yeah, because we had two plots going on from the start. Shadowlands from the start only had the Jailer storyline.

We also have Elune and the WQ, and we don’t really know Life’s true role in this conflict yet...

So...

[Revamp Man]

i have to honestly ask if anybody actually believes that the delays only affect the patches themselves up to and including current development and do not cause a delay in 10.0

[ExiHext]

i have to honestly ask if anybody actually believes that the delays only affect the patches themselves up to and including current development and do not cause a delay in 10.0

I guess that's why people believe there will be no 9.2...because ditching 9.3 buys them time for 10.0.
The discussion in general is absolutely moot because we don't know how far 10.0 already progressed or how the schedule for SL was planned. Absolutely everything stated in this thread are assumptions which are basically fuelled by opinions. And you know that opinions are like b...holes, everybody has one.
And no, none of you makes better assumptions/has a superior opinion than anyone else.

[Sondrelk]

No no no no no. While I disagree with Nyel, are you seriously of the idea that 9.2 is going to be Light and/or Shadow shit? Are fucking serious?

I don't think it will bebecause that would be insane, just as much as what happened in BfA.
The point I am making here is that if BfA could get away with it then it clearly isnt impossible, even if it by rights should be.

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I guess that's why people believe there will be no 9.2...because ditching 9.3 buys them time for 10.0.
The discussion in general is absolutely moot because we don't know how far 10.0 already progressed or how the schedule for SL was planned. Absolutely everything stated in this thread are assumptions which are basically fuelled by opinions. And you know that opinions are like b...holes, everybody has one.
And no, none of you makes better assumptions/has a superior opinion than anyone else.

We are at a point where something has to give though. We cannot have SL go to 9.3, be of high quality (that is quality zones and questlines) and also only last the usual 2 years.
If Blizzard wants 10.0 to launch the usual Q3/Q4 date 2022 then they have to either sacrifice a full patch or make one of them smaller in scope.
If they want the expansion to go to 9.3 (or 9.3.5) They either need to have a longer expansion (half a year to a full year longer) or skimp on patch content.
If they want all patches to be of quality then they either need to make the expansion longer or slash a patch.

At this point it seema impoaaible that Blizzard will manage everything, and there is nothing wrong with that with all that has happened. The worst thing they could do is try to rush things.


Though then again, being optimistic it is abssolutely true that 9.1 is larger than the usual X.1 patch which rarely if ever has new areas to explore, so Blizzard could easily cut down content in 9.2 or 9.3. Though they will still have to contend with the playerbase complaining they are being lazy or what have you.

[ExiHext]

I'm totally with you.
It's just those guys that constantly have to rub in their opinion of how SL MIGHT go as nigh fact because they definitely know better than the rest.