Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Super Dickmann]

So they will eventually happen and will piss off everyone?

Yes, then they'll be talked about endlessly for years on end. So they're also the high elves of classes.

[draugril]

Yes, then they'll be talked about endlessly for years on end. So they're also the high elves of classes.

So they'll get all the cool "personalized transformation" cosmetics that Druids have been asking after for years?

[Factcheckerrr]

It's Scarlet Crusade propaganda.

They knew of her child, so they made up a story of having "her son".
Except she doesn't have a son, she has a daughter.

I'm pretty sure they are one and the same character. The Scarlets currently lack a singular "leader" that could stand toe to toe next to Turalyon and Yrel as leaders of the Light, so this "Royal Son" would actually be Calia's daughter either brainwashed or forced into being a masculine-pretending paladin.

Points if she is designed to look like "Evil Anduin"!

[Raetary]

the reason for them to not recognize eachother is a combination of age and Calia not using her real name when she was married to Bolvar who at the time was just a foot soldier

Calia never mentioned a secret identity when she told the story, you'd think she would mention such a rather important point.
Furthermore its very much implied he knew about her status, hence the secrecy around their relationship, the begging a priestess in secret to marry them and trying to get the child out of Lordaeron when she finally told her mother.

Even if Blizzard does take that route, Bolvar not recognizing her is one thing but she would absolutely recognize him by name alone.
And in that case, Calia stood right next to Taelia in Oribos.

If for whatever reason she wouldn't come out to Bolvar, surely she would say something when she meets Bolvars, and therefore her own, daughter?

[Skytotem]

Don't know why you'd come to this conclusion. I rather think the new map indicates that she's not coming back (for now) and instead something else happens to the Forsaken.
_____

Oh I forgot Khadgar returning. Seems quite weird, but I'm interested to see what this means for the next expansion.

Khadgars gonna get body snatched by a dreadlord

[Sondrelk]

So they'll get all the cool "personalized transformation" cosmetics that Druids have been asking after for years?

You know what will be especially funny?
Once SL is over and Shammies don't get more ghost wolf transformations despite the Soulshape NF ability proving it's trivial to make them whatever you want.

[Graden]

Khadgars gonna get body snatched by a dreadlord

Hopefully not a dreadlord but Khadgar sounded so...weird. I sensed something really diabolical for some reason.

[Super Dickmann]

So they'll get all the cool "personalized transformation" cosmetics that Druids have been asking after for years?

You know it. Tinkers will get all the robot skins they want.

@Sondrelk

If I ever touched shaman with a ten foot pole I'd be pretty depressed on the cosmetic field. Nowadays everyone can be something cool, like a hippo, whereas you're stuck with a wolf form who's first iteration is almost old enough to vote.

[Sondrelk]

Calia never mentioned a secret identity when she told the story, you'd think she would mention such a rather important point.
Furthermore its very much implied he knew about her status, hence the secrecy around their relationship, the begging a priestess in secret to marry them and trying to get the child out of Lordaeron when she finally told her mother.

Even if Blizzard does take that route, Bolvar not recognizing her is one thing but she would absolutely recognize him by name alone.
And in that case, Calia stood right next to Taelia in Oribos.

If for whatever reason she wouldn't come out to Bolvar, surely she would say something when she meets Bolvars, and therefore her own, daughter?

They also didnt really speak at all, and then Calia disappeared from the story completely. It's not unthinkable it was planned to have a big reveal somewhere in the story that just never ended up happening.

Until Calia and/or Bolvar state conclusively who the missing person is in their lives the obvious choice will always be that Talia is Calias daughter.

- - - Updated - - -

You know it. Tinkers will get all the robot skins they want.
@Sondrelk

If I ever touched shaman with a ten foot pole I'd be pretty depressed on the cosmetic field. Nowadays everyone can be something cool, like a hippo, whereas you're stuck with a wolf form who's first iteration is almost old enough to vote.

I guess Blizzard has been slightly better in adding more Shammy transformations, but still extremely few considering.

One does have to wonder what will happen to all the Soulshape forms from SL after the expansion ends though. Sure they will still be useable in Shadowlands content, so there is that minor use. But compared to how incredibly varied and complex the Soulshape gathering minigame is I am kidna surprised we have not already gotten a toy or similar that let's us transform into any collected appearance.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You know it. Tinkers will get all the robot skins they want.

@Sondrelk

If I ever touched shaman with a ten foot pole I'd be pretty depressed on the cosmetic field. Nowadays everyone can be something cool, like a hippo, whereas you're stuck with a wolf form who's first iteration is almost old enough to vote.

Shaman just needs to be torn down entirely.

[Iain]

Well that's what I mean. Stuff like that isn't used as a new feature for an expansion, it just sort of happens within the expansion. Something like that being used as THE feature for a new expansion would seem extremely underwhelming. Again, look at Cataclysm; The entire planet was revamped, and people were still underwhelmed.

I never played Cataclysm when it was live. So I guess I got to skip the end-game drought. Which means I get to be thoroughly impressed by the humongous amount of content that expansion provided. WoW would be a much smaller and emptier place if it wasn't for Cataclysm.

The problem is that Blizzard only invented a way to rehash the levelling content into end-game content during Legion by turning them into World Quests and Mythics.

I feel Blizzard still owes their older content that same treatment. *All* of the zones, up to Warlords of Draenor turned into World Quest areas, and see maybe two or three instances per expansion into a Mythic Plus. Legion, BfA and Shadowlands merely require their levels scaled as they're already good to go.

It's a high amount of work, but it's also a risk-free commitment on Blizzard's end. They don't need to experiment, they don't need to put any R&D into new systems. Merely take what worked in their last few expansions and retroactively apply it to everything else. It gives the player endlessly self-replenishing content, more than they'll ever be able to exhaust in a lifetime. Something that keeps people subscribed permanently.

[Teriz]

I never played Cataclysm when it was live. So I guess I got to skip the end-game drought. Which means I get to be thoroughly impressed by the humongous amount of content that expansion provided. WoW would be a much smaller and emptier place if it wasn't for Cataclysm.

The problem is that Blizzard only invented a way to rehash the levelling content into end-game content during Legion by turning them into World Quests and Mythics.

I feel Blizzard still owes their older content that same treatment. *All* of the zones, up to Warlords of Draenor turned into World Quest areas, and see maybe two or three instances per expansion into a Mythic Plus. Legion, BfA and Shadowlands merely require their levels scaled as they're already good to go.

It's a high amount of work, but it's also a risk-free commitment on Blizzard's end. They don't need to experiment, they don't need to put any R&D into new systems. Merely take what worked in their last few expansions and retroactively apply it to everything else. It gives the player endlessly self-replenishing content, more than they'll ever be able to exhaust in a lifetime. Something that keeps people subscribed permanently.

Cool. My overall point is that people pining for a revamp seem to forget that Cataclysm also had 7 new zones, and 2 new zones for the two new races. In other words, if we do get a revamp, we’re still getting a new continent/landmass.

Personally, I’m Team Steamscale; The Undermine/Dragon Isle expansion.

Maybe I’ll make a fancy signature tag like everyone else…..

[The Stormbringer]

The thing is with FFXIV, all of those obscured, clouded landmasses are KNOWN and have been EXPLORED, and even those that weren't on the map at all like the Far East in Stormblood were name dropped in quests and what not long before the expansion comes out. It's like, "hey, these places are known, but we're clouding them out because we (the devs) are still working on the map geometry so the change won't be jarring". Hopefully I'm making some sense.

With WoW, all of the new landmasses save Northrend since it was on the map since Classic just pop out of no where with no explanation. It's jarring.

No, I get what you mean. I feel like back in Vanilla they should have taken the time to chart out all the various landmasses, and if they wound up making them bigger at some point or shifting them around a little, or even adding a few more, they could have an explanation for it like, "Oh, the maps were a little inaccurate." or what have you. They never did that though, so now they're just plopping things down out of nowhere and it feels silly. At list Pandaria made sense, it was literally masked by magical mists keeping it from being detected or found.

[Grimbold21]

Shaman just needs to be torn down entirely.

You fittin to get yourself in deep trouble.

[therumblings]

developers themselves don't actually know much of what they're working on until it gets revealed for everyone

Lol what? The devs definitely know what they're working on, the reason why leaks are so brief is usually because the people leaking them only see a small presentation and have to remember important details only.

[Syegfryed]

It's a mistake in that it was a risk that didn't have a significant payoff for all the effort that went into it. It wasn't a mistake of being terrible or mediocre, it's a mistake of being picking a theme that had mixed reception and was generally poorly received by the market they tailored it for.

Sill mop had more numbers than other expansions with darker and edgier themes, or do you think shadowlands have more players than MOP? that shadowlands was more safe and paid more than MOP? come on now.

I have doubts they would want to make this mistake again with doubling down on some Goblin and Gnome expansion, especially when they can simply introduce them as a supporting subtheme just as Mechagon came and went. Even Undermine can be introduced without being a 'Goblin expansion', simply by being a questing hub or a large neutral city, like a new Dalaran. The focus of the expansion's overall theme can easily be on the big new threat, whether it's more Old God shenanigans or the return of Azshara or whatever.

Current team is not good or competent enough to make that happen, old team prob would do it. MOP was not just about pandas, just like a "goblin and gnome expansion" would not b ejust about then.

That's the problem isn't it? They didn't even continue the Aysa-Ji stories at all. They just dropped it entirely. Hard. These characters have become absolutely insignificant even though they're our Pandaren connections to each faction.

Yeah, again, that is what happens with neutral races, its extremely hard and nonsensical in a game about different races killing each other, it needs way too much effort and way too much thinking for something that doesn't pay off.

[Triceron]

Yeah, again, that is what happens with neutral races, its extremely hard and nonsensical in a game about different races killing each other, it needs way too much effort and way too much thinking for something that doesn't pay off.

Void Elves are literally exiled Blood Elves with voidy powers. I don't see this being a problem with them getting plenty of lore in BFA and more in the future once we have more Light vs Void shenanigans. They're just as 'Neutral' when you consider they'd be fighting their Blood Elf brethren.

It really doesn't take much thought at all. The idea of a 'Neutral' race is merely a gameplay mechanics thing. As soon as a Pandaren picks sides, their enemy is their enemy, and their loyalty is bound to the Horde.

They don't get story because they're basically the black sheep of the bunch.

[Syegfryed]

Void Elves are literally exiled Blood Elves with voidy powers. I don't see this being a problem with them getting plenty of lore in BFA and more in the future once we have more Light vs Void shenanigans. They're just as 'Neutral' when you consider they'd be fighting their Blood Elf brethren.

It really doesn't take much thought at all. The idea of a 'Neutral' race is merely a gameplay mechanics thing. As soon as a Pandaren picks sides, their enemy is their enemy, and their loyalty is bound to the Horde.

They don't get story because they're basically the black sheep of the bunch.

void elves are literalyanother race with another thematic and goal, they are as much different as a blood elf and a night elf, regardless of what they look like, they still are void mutated things. They can safely put then fighting each other with different thematic light x void. while pandarens is just panda x panda in different levels of panda.

[Triceron]

void elves are literalyanother race with another thematic and goal, they are as much different as a blood elf and a night elf, regardless of what they look like, they still are void mutated things. They can safely put then fighting each other with different thematic light x void. while pandarens is just panda x panda in different levels of panda.

Is there any particular reason why Void Elves wouldn't be accepted by the Horde because of their voidy mutated powers?

Not at all. The lore we have is literally written for them to be in the Alliance even though they're literally just Void-touched Blood Elves who would otherwise still be in the Horde. The lore could have been written any-which-way to fit them back into Horde; simply as an alternate Blood Elf subrace just like Dark Irons are for Dwarves or Lightforged are for Draenei.

Their whole reason to exist in the Alliance is because Alliance fanboys have been pining for 'High Elf' options for literal decades.

[Ersula]

I'm pretty sure they are one and the same character. The Scarlets currently lack a singular "leader" that could stand toe to toe next to Turalyon and Yrel as leaders of the Light, so this "Royal Son" would actually be Calia's daughter either brainwashed or forced into being a masculine-pretending paladin.

Points if she is designed to look like "Evil Anduin"!

I know a fake heir could be a whole plotline: But there's a very good chance they don't mean a literal Menethil child: There's like a 90% chance the Lordaeron Heir they are talking about is Turalyon. The Scarlets see him as the rightful heir of Lordaeron because he's the last living member of the Lordaeron Aristocracy.