Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Revamp Man]

Island expeditions set up a LOT of threats. Ones that most people would assume were dealt with. Vrykul, Fire Elementals, Mogu, Mantid, Dragons, just to name a few.
That doesn't mean each one will receive an expansion for them.

True but keep in mind these
Mantid
Mogu
Old gods
Naga
Trolls
Twilight dragons
Were threats that became a thing in BfA

The remaining ones
Dragons
Elementals
Honestly I forgot lol I think dragons were like 3 different flights and threats

[therumblings]

we learnt that Wrathion is searching for them.

And in classic Wrathion style, his hint would be the expansion after the next, like how Legion was after WoD.

[namlessman]

World of Warcraft: Soul of the Gods

not dragon isles, instead a series of islands on the other side of azeroth
these new islands are supposed to rival kalimdor + ek in size, biggest "continent" since launch
new player levelling will start here too (idk how this part works)
story is a soft reboot or something
player housing introduced in rebuilt stratholme (horde) and dire maul (ally)
>evel cap staying at 60, players squished to 50 again
small overhaul of talent tree, now there's small incremental talents in between the abilities at 15, 30, 45 etc

[Teriz]

Northrend and The Outland are well established in Warcraft (pre WoW) lore. It's not equivalent. Dragon Isles was also originally planned to not be an entire continent, but a single raid instance. The Undermine/Kezan IS established in WoW lore, and due to that, in my opinion, more reasonable than Dragon Isles.

Agreed which is why (as my signature suggests) I believe we’re looking at an Undermine/Dragon Isles expansion.

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Ok legion clues pointed towards BfA

So tell me what clues in SL points towards dragons because the store mount and pet mean literally nothing

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ravnyr
https://www.wowhead.com/item=186556/...cal-dragonling
https://www.wowhead.com/npc=175546/timecapn-hooktail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6KnbbQK4h4
https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-dra...nd-pets-325358
https://latestgamestories.com/2022/0...-dragon-addon/

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And in classic Wrathion style, his hint would be the expansion after the next, like how Legion was after WoD.

Which is another reason I weigh Wrathion's presence so heavily. Blizzard uses him as a plot driver for whatever reason. If they're tying the Dragon Isles to him, you have to take it into heavy consideration for expansion inclusion.

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I’m with Teri’s on this one. Foreshadowing exists in any medium that tells a story. And yes, by definition, you only know what was foreshadowing with the benefit of hindsight. But that doesn’t void the existence of that foreshadowing, nor does it mean that speculation is pointless.

Exactly right.

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Outland and Northrend were added in the 2 expansions following vanilla. With all the dragon stuff we've got in Cata, they could've easily added the Dragon Isles back then in stead of those disconnected zones.

They could have also brought in Demon Hunters during TBC, but instead they decided to wait until Legion. Blizzard's mind works in mysterious ways.

Also as a developer, if you have a long plan in mind for your game, you're not going to dump all the goods at once. You save some content for future expansions, like what they did with Northrend, Mt. Hyjal, Outland, Undermine, and other locations in Vanilla.

Wouldn't mind Dragon Isles at all but looking for a pattern where there isn't one smells like confirmation bias.

I don't know what "pattern" you're suggesting here.

[Syegfryed]

For that matter, that scene might not even be a clue. Zandalari and Kul'tirans are obvious choices for shipwrecked troops, regardless of what the next expansion would be.

This is copium, there was no way those shit would be just "obvious choices for shipwrecked troops", especially with zandalari model like that, it was a blatantly hit for the next expansion.

The point of hints is that they are supposed to be small/little, and we SHOULD ignore majority of the stuff to find then or take meaning out of it. Yes the next expansion is more inclined to be about dragons because all the subtle hints and things we could make sense out of it.

It could be nothing and they could totally go for a tangent or double down to more cosmic bullshit, but its unlikely.

Like, being completely serious, wow don't have many loose ends to pull out an entire expansion, neither many stuff to create from zero or amazing writers. The options we have atm that are more likely to be explored knowing the state of the lore and game are:

1 - Dragons
2 - Yrel/light invasion
3 - More cosmic bs
4 - Underground war that is being hinted for years with the blingtron
6 - Azshara coming back
7- A completely new/never seen stuff

Im putting my money on dragon stuff. Especially after Danuser making shit up with the dragon lore recently, i bet my left hand he will "claim" dragon lore for his own now.

[huth]

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ravnyr
https://www.wowhead.com/item=186556/...cal-dragonling
https://www.wowhead.com/npc=175546/timecapn-hooktail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6KnbbQK4h4
https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-dra...nd-pets-325358
https://latestgamestories.com/2022/0...-dragon-addon/

And now go look for everything that might point to other types of expansion.

[Teriz]

And now go look for everything that might point to other types of expansion.

You're forgetting that that is on top of the dragon clues we got during BFA.

[huth]

This is copium, there was no way those shit would be just "obvious choices for shipwrecked troops", especially with zandalari model like that, it was a blatantly hit for the next expansion.

I'm not entirely sure what model that is, but it's either from the MoP Zandalari or it was replaced with BfA. There was no new Zandalari model in Legion and they thus couldn't have used it either. They did have specific Zandalari models already, though. So, yeah, copium. On your end. Especially since the Kul Tirans where just using old assets that don't even look similar to the BfA stuff.

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You're forgetting that that is on top of the dragon clues we got during BFA.

No, i'm not. But you're making the mistake of searching for evidence to your conclusion, instead of checking all evidence and then drawing a conclusion.

[therumblings]

Are we really at the point where we are denying the fact Kul Tiran/Zandalari NPCs were a hint to BFA? Which they obviously were working on during Legion, and we know Blizzard adds hints to the next expansion during the previous?

[Khaza-R]

Imagine Denathrius teaming up with Azshara. Two big, badass villains.

I was actually just thinking after the Ghostlands scenario if they were setting up the Nathrezim to take over the Scourge.

[Teriz]

No, i'm not. But you're making the mistake of searching for evidence to your conclusion, instead of checking all evidence and then drawing a conclusion.

Okay, what evidence am I supposedly missing that points us away from a Dragon-based expansion? Again, this is all speculation, so I'm open to other theories. If you can come up with something equal to the amount of dragon stuff we're seeing, I'll consider it.

Oh, and throw this on the pile too;

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Blizzard_Legends

Are we really at the point where we are denying the fact Kul Tiran/Zandalari NPCs were a hint to BFA? Which they obviously were working on during Legion, and we know Blizzard adds hints to the next expansion during the previous?

Yes, we're at that point. It's a weird flex to be sure. Some folks seem to believe that a hint is only a hint if you 100% know it's a hint.

[therumblings]

There are a ton of hints toward a Dragon expansion, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's for 10.0. I think it's a safe bet though.

[Syegfryed]

Legion had a ton of dragon content, from Ysera to the Blues to the introduction of a whole new dragon brood.
We also learnt that the Twillights are revitalized.
In BfA the dragons became relevant again, the dragon isles got mentioned by name for the first time and we learnt that Wrathion is searching for them.
In Exploring Azeroth:Kalimdor the isles got referenced once more.
Ysera had her whole death arc in Shadowlands.
Furthermore we have an encrypted green dragon mount datamined, which sparked the whole hyperfixation on dragons in the first place, and at this point is absolutely the next deluxe edition mount.

Dragons are a theme that's being set up left and right.
You'd have to be completely blind not to see it.

in BfA we had many dragons in the isle expeditious, twilight dragons and black dragons coming back with a considerable force, apparently even a chromatic dragon was seen.

In some quests of the twilight highlands there was twilight drakes whelps flying out of grim batol, then we got all the stuff with Vexiona

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I'm not entirely sure what model that is, but it's either from the MoP Zandalari or it was replaced with BfA. There was no new Zandalari model in Legion and they thus couldn't have used it either. They did have specific Zandalari models already, though. So, yeah, copium. On your end. Especially since the Kul Tirans where just using old assets that don't even look similar to the BfA stuff.

It was a updated version from the mop yes, not the one used for the ones in bfa, but they were not the same.

And they were 100% blatantly hints, they made no sense to be there, especially together.

[therumblings]

The biggest hint we have now is the datamined dragon mount thingy which might be the deluxe edition mount, other than that we will probably not realize what the real "hints" were until the expansion is revealed.

[huth]

Okay, what evidence am I supposedly missing that points us away from a Dragon-based expansion? Again, this is all speculation, so I'm open to other theories. If you can come up with something equal to the amount of dragon stuff we're seeing, I'll consider it.

It's about your fundamental approach. Not what ultimately comes of it. Also, the claim that you're open to other theories is hogwash. You keep dismissing them out of hand.

Not sure what you think a reprint of books proves. That could easily be a purely economic decision.

[Teriz]

It's about your fundamental approach. Not what ultimately comes of it. Also, the claim that you're open to other theories is hogwash. You keep dismissing them out of hand.

Okay, so I'm openly asking you to give me some alternatives, and you refuse to give them to me because you think I'm somehow lying?

Okay.

Not sure what you think a reprint of books proves. That could easily be a purely economic decision.

Yes, a series of dragon book reprints to capitalize on WoW's upcoming dragon-based expansion. In such a scenario, Blizzard could be thinking that WoW fans might want to read up on old dragon lore to prepare them for the upcoming expansion.

Makes sense, since the first book is scheduled for re-release a week after the next expansion's announcement.

[Raetary]

Not sure what you think a reprint of books proves. That could easily be a purely economic decision.

It's not the reprint itself that's relevant, but that every single book that's being reprinted is is about dragons and the cataclysm.

[Teriz]

BTW, here's an Endgadget article that came about a month before Mists of Pandaria's announcement. It discusses possible future expansion locations. Those locations were Pandaria, Broken Isles, and Undermine. We got 2 out of 3 so far.

https://www.engadget.com/2011-08-07-...-pandaria.html

[huth]

Okay, so I'm openly asking you to give me some alternatives, and you refuse to give them to me because you think I'm somehow lying?

No, because your fundamental approach to the matter is incorrect. It isn't about what your conclusion is. It's about how you got there.

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It's not the reprint itself that's relevant, but that every single book that's being reprinted is is about dragons and the cataclysm.

That's mostly because the vast majority of them are. If they excluded the ones with dragons or cataclysm, they'd only have the most recent ones mostly.

[Thenatural]

I flew around a bit of the WoD zones last night on my way to the timewalking vendor.

This game needs a grounded expansion with big fantasy zones. Remember inns? Inns? I remember.

Dragons, tinkers, borrowed power, I don't care. Just give me grounded WoW.

Also, this might be controversial, but I don't think legion scratched that itch at all. I think those zones were congested and claustrophobic and missed the mark in terms of what we've seen WoW offer.

Zerith mortis should be the template for all future zones. No crazy clusters of enemies, it feels expansive, it has lost of cool environmental storytelling, it have areas that feel seamlessly distinct without feeling abrupt or out-of-place, the mobs are interesting and cool, the music is great and comfy, the quests are cool and find the perfect middle-ground between nu-wow and more classically designed quests.