Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[DiscipleofCazicThule]

Also I love how he doesn't give anything tangible about the expansion to "not ruin the surprise. Fuck me sideways, a half decent effort from the devs would be the surprise at this point.

That was my take as well. You're able to spoil all this stuff about Shadowlands, but you can only say the code name of the upcoming patch? You can't mention 9.2.5? Like, you're already messed up with the NDA, go full hog if you're legit.

[Shadochi]

Scrambling to rewrite everything would be a clear explanation for alot including why the rendered cinematics of the style of BfA vanished after the Sylvanas Bolvar one.

We had Beyond the Veil after the Sylvanas and Bolvar one

[ChairmanKaga]

We had Beyond the Veil after the Sylvanas and Bolvar one

Sorry forgot that for some reason.

[Triceron]

Oh boy. This is good! http://boards.4channel.org/v/thread/...dowlands-leaks

I hold my skepticism, but will say it's a fun read.

I especially like the Anduin being Arthas and Jaina's lovechild thing. Not something I ever see Blizzard ever actually doing, totally in the realm of fan service like the whole Anduin/Wrathion shipping, but still a cool twist to consider in that respect.

I like the outlines of what raids could have been too. Would've been neat to consider.

Also like the jab at Tinkers.

[Shadochi]

I hold my skepticism, but will say it's a fun read.

I especially like the Anduin being Arthas and Jaina's lovechild thing. Not something I ever see Blizzard ever actually doing, totally in the realm of fan service like the whole Anduin/Wrathion shipping, but still a cool twist to consider in that respect.

I like the outlines of what raids could have been too. Would've been neat to consider.

Also like the jab at Tinkers.

tbh that has been a fan theory for a while now, and people were thinking they were saving Arthas for that

[Triceron]

tbh that has been a fan theory for a while now, and people were thinking they were saving Arthas for that

It's one of those 'probably bullshit, but I buy it' theories.

I always found it weird that Anduin has bright blond hair while Varian had dark brown. I always felt like it was 'the seed is strong' parallel that they never really carried into fruition.

But if it actually happened, I think it'd absolutely suck since it means the royal line of Wrynn would be completely broken. I hold Lothar's sacrifice in high regard in the lore, and I'd hate to see it thrown away because of edgy plot twists. We have enough lore being squandered away for that reason already.

[Catastrophy349]

We are just about a month away (today being the 18th) from the announcement! I am very excited. Hoping for the best. I just want an expansion that makes me feel like playing all the way through instead of a week here and there (Shadowlands).

[DiscipleofCazicThule]

It's one of those 'probably bullshit, but I buy it' theories.

I always found it weird that Anduin has bright blond hair while Varian had dark brown. I always felt like it was 'the seed is strong' parallel that they never really carried into fruition.

But if it actually happened, I think it'd absolutely suck since it means the royal line of Wrynn would be completely broken. I hold Lothar's sacrifice in high regard in the lore, and I'd hate to see it thrown away because of edgy plot twists. We have enough lore being squandered away for that reason already.

It's not too crazy that Anduin has blone hair. His mother's been a blonde since at least as long as the old WoW comics.

[Triceron]

It's not too crazy that Anduin has blone hair. His mother's been a blonde since at least as long as the old WoW comics.

Dark hair is generally a dominant gene. Yes, there are cases where you could get a blonde haired child from parents who have brown and blonde, but that depends if the brown hair person has the blonde-hair genes in them. If they don't, the child's hair would be brown. If they do, then it's still only a chance that the child's hair would be blonde.

Which is why the theory makes sense, since it's playing on 'the Seed is Strong' plot twist.

[huth]

Dark hair is generally a dominant gene. Yes, there are cases where you could get a blonde haired child from parents who have brown and blonde, but that depends if the brown hair person has the blonde-hair genes in them. If they don't, the child's hair would be brown. If they do, then it's still only a chance that the child's hair would be blonde.

Which is why the theory makes sense, since it's playing on 'the Seed is Strong' plot twist.

Not really. The theory makes little sense either way. You'd have a point if Anduin's hair was to dark, but he's not outside the viable range for his parents.

[Triceron]

Not really. The theory makes little sense either way. You'd have a point if Anduin's hair was to dark, but he's not outside the viable range for his parents.

Blonde hair is a recessive gene, and that doesn't change whether Anduin has pure-blonde or dark-blonde hair.

Anduin's hair doesn't have to be darker to many any point. Blonde hair is a recessive gene, and we haven't seen any other Blonde characters in the Wrynn line of succession. Only Tiffin has been shown to be Blonde. It's only implied that Varian has Blonde hair gene in his lineage since Anduin has Blonde hair. We haven't seen any evidence to support this otherwise.

You are correct that he's not outside the viable range. It's just a rare occurance considering we haven't seen any other Blonde Wrynn characters, and the theory would work because the rarity of the condition could be considered as a potential plot twist hook. I mean honestly, there's little reason why Anduin wasn't introduced as a Brunette like his father and grandfather.

That being said, I also cast doubt on there being any significance in the hair color beyond an art director simply liking the color. Greymane's fur color has been depicted differently in-game in WoW, in concept art, in Heroes of the Storm and in cinematics/promotional art. Malfurion and Tyrande have had multiple hair color changes over the years as well, going from the blue hair in WC3 to variations of teal and vibrant green as we have now. I wouldn't expect this to be something seeded into Anduin's original history. I think he was always meant to be Varian's son, and any changes to his history would be done after his introduction to WoW rather than be planned as a plot twist from the beginning.

[Soulwind]

By all means, let's discuss how genes work for stone golems who got cursed by tentacle monsters and became fleshy.

Anduin being Arthas' child would throw several stories under the bus in favor of some misguided fanservice. While it's not beyond Blizzard, it is certainly not something anyone should be rooting for.

[huth]

Anduin's hair doesn't have to be darker to many any point. Blonde hair is a recessive gene, and we haven't seen any other Blonde characters in the Wrynn line of succession.

Actually, we do. Llane, Varian's father.

[Kiivar86]

Seeing as I'm blond and blue eyed and born to parents who are both dark brown haired and eyed, Anduin being blond doesn't strike me as overly strange and indicative of his father not being Varian.

Also almost all my relatives are equally dark, with only one (paternal uncle) having a non-brown or black hair (in his case, redhead)

[Polybius]

I hold my skepticism, but will say it's a fun read.

I especially like the Anduin being Arthas and Jaina's lovechild thing. Not something I ever see Blizzard ever actually doing, totally in the realm of fan service like the whole Anduin/Wrathion shipping, but still a cool twist to consider in that respect.

I like the outlines of what raids could have been too. Would've been neat to consider.

Also like the jab at Tinkers.

That part makes me question the validity of the post. They’ve spent years working at Blizz but it’s a forum craze to them? Nevermind Monks and Demon Hunters that had their own big following as well. I’ve seen all three get their series of threads well before MoP. Dragonsworn is fairly new but became popular around Legion.

There are other sentences where you can question their credit, they’re giving an overview of the game and not of their role.

[Triceron]

That part makes me question the validity of the post. They’ve spent years working at Blizz but it’s a forum craze, nevermind Monks and Demon Hunters that has their own craze building up as well. I’ve seen all three get their series of threads well before MoP.

There are other sentences where you can question their credit, they’re giving an overview of the game and not of their role.

I think their talk of sub numbers is most damning. It's like fan confirmation bias more than anything. Parroting what people want to hear. I kind of doubt any 'grunt' working there would actually have data on the numbers of subs played.

[Polybius]

If we're talking about Tinkers, it's mostly a craze here.

It gets the same amount of niche talk as Necromancers and Bards elsewhere. Like, Reddit doesn't even recognize the concept any greater than anything else. Tinkers are mostly a MMO-C thing as far as I'm aware, and even the polls here get an average of like 30% pick out of ~300 people polled.

The first time I saw it namedropped was on the official forums. I mean any new class thread can be regarded as niche, it is its own topic loaded with speculation. But these classes have always been talked about in said threads, even in outside circles from people that have never been to MMOC, they base it off class rpg archetypes.

addendum: class archetypes, Warcraft npc units, and unplayable lore figures

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Bagh, nvm then. I just saw your edits and was going to say the same. Doubt they’d even spend as much time on forums. I imagine they have someone filtering all the bad apples.

[Chickat]

"Players who tell Tal-Inara that they have been to Zereth Mortis before and have already met Pocopoc will now receive the Enlightened reputation they would miss out on by skipping those quests."

This is a great change.

Blizzard seem to be listening. They do at the end of every expansion, but they are listening more then usual. Maybe next expansion will be another Legion.

[Shadochi]

"Players who tell Tal-Inara that they have been to Zereth Mortis before and have already met Pocopoc will now receive the Enlightened reputation they would miss out on by skipping those quests."

This is a great change.

Blizzard seem to be listening. They do at the end of every expansion, but they are listening more then usual. Maybe next expansion will be another Legion.

tbh stuff like this has been going on for half a year. It started with 9.1.5 which was basically the whole patch of stuff like that.
But with 9.2 they started more actively listening to that stuff during development and with hotfixes instead of just the next patch.
It happened with flying a couple times during 9.2 development IIRC and to be honest what they did with ZM story is probably the best to both reach their goal of giving flying after completing stuff in zones and players wanting to fly in latest zones without grinding rep. Legendaries also saw something like that with the 265 version being part of the questline and not requiring rep. The rep distribution in content as well.

This is one of the small-but-not-small things that give me hope for the future of player feedback.

[NextExpacGuess]

What reddit and MMO-champion think 10.0 will be
* Tinker class, a dragonkin race, and player housing + carpentry/woodworking professions
* Dragon Isles (5 zones) and an old world revamp
* Main enemy: The Void
* Primary protagonists: Sylvanas, Anduin, Nathanos, Alleria, Wrathion
* Later patches revamp Northrend and Pandaria
* Release date: Q3 2022

What 4chan thinks 10.0 will be
* New gender/pronoun options, removal of boobs, 20% of NPCs become transgender
* 1 new zone (either Dragon Isles or Lifelands)
* Main enemy: The Light and Void
* Primary protagonists: Sylvanas, Anduin, Pelagos, Chromie, Shaw, Flynn
* There are no patches, game shuts down one week later and everyone gets a month free of FFXIV
* Release date: Q4 2024

What I think 10.0 will be
* New race/class combos, some kind of mythic+ raid system, battle royale PvP zone
* 4-5 new zones scattered across Azeroth like Cataclysm (likely including the Dragon Isles, possibly some underground)
* Main enemy: The First Ones
* Primary protagonists: Medivh, Khadgar, Alexstrasza, Wrathion, Azeroth, Anduin, Thrall, Xal'atath, Azshara
* Later patches take us to the First Ones dimension
* Release date: Q1 2023