Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Elflover99]

A bunch more encrypted items got added this build as well, we'll see what those end up being.

Any hints on the items? Like item types, sounds, etc

[KainneAbsolute]

A new tree requires the blessing of the Aspects...otherwise...

[Skytotem]

A new tree requires the blessing of the Aspects...otherwise...

Well that was before the nightmare and old gods got slammed, and it'd be using 'nightfae' magic too so it'll probably be fine.

[Marlamin]

Any hints on the items? Like item types, sounds, etc

Nope, but scroll down to Key 399 on https://wow.tools/files/encrypted.php and that's pretty much as far as what I know goes!

[Elflover99]

Nope, but scroll down to Key 399 on https://wow.tools/files/encrypted.php and that's pretty much as far as what I know goes!

Do the items having racial IDs mean they are customizations?

[Marlamin]

Also, unrelated to the current conversation, but there was a hotfix (without public data) on Thursday that was a bit weird.

It was a 9.2 hotfix that touched 2 battle pets and 2 mounts, all 4 of which are encrypted.

There are 3 mounts still encrypted in 9.2 of which 2 (1517 and 1556) are relevant and from 9.x. One of these has to be the speculated Emerald Drake mount MMOC posted about a while back, the other one I don't know much about.

One of the hotfixed pets (3175) is a pet with several Dragonkin abilities, which is interesting, but does not appear to be the pet included in the same encrypted bundle of files as the Emerald Drake mount. That's another pet I don't know much about yet (other than what was already spoken about in the post, e.g. the likely vulpera skeleton shared thing).

I don't think I'll have a ton of more time/energy to dig into this the next two weeks, at which point we'll already likely have the answer to all of this, but it is interesting nonetheless!

Do the items having racial IDs mean they are customizations?

Maybe! There are some similarities to the Celestial Transmog set (scroll down to key 323 for that one) in that there's items for multiple races with a few entries in the transmog DBs, so it's probably a transmog set of some sorts. Might be some 10.0 pre-order, event and/or questline thing or something entirely different. There were a bunch of item textures that got removed, but those could also be related to the new Blood Elf questline thing.

[Elflover99]

So the Vulpera looking pet is part of the deluxe bundle, but there is a separate dragon pet that is encrypted but not part of the bundle?

[Local Ardenweald Faerie]

Do the items having racial IDs mean they are customizations?

Having racial IDs mean that they are gear that uses race-specific geosets. A helmet should not look the same on a Blood Elf and a Pandaren, so they use different race IDs.

[Marlamin]

So the Vulpera looking pet is part of the deluxe bundle, but there is a separate dragon pet that is encrypted but not part of the bundle?

...apparently, yep. No idea what can be inferred from that, maybe there's multiple related things coming out at the same time in a giant pre-order bundle as they could just release multiple keys at the same time? Maybe they're completely separate and unrelated?

Lots of speculation/interpretation to be had here and probably a lot more of things that can be found if dataminers are bored enough.

[Elflover99]

...apparently, yep. No idea what can be inferred from that, maybe there's multiple related things coming out at the same time in a giant pre-order bundle as they could just release multiple keys at the same time? Maybe they're completely separate and unrelated?

Lots of speculation/interpretation to be had here and probably a lot more of things that can be found if dataminers are bored enough.

Blizz made two unpopular expansions back to back to kill the spoiler datamine scene. Worth.

[Three Faced Goddess]

https://ptr.wowhead.com/storyline/me...rk-rangers-884

I stand corrected. It IS hunter only, but he has flavor text if you are the Huntmaster (aka you did the Order Hall in legion).

Here's the rub: if this is a dark ranger customization, you telling me every race can use it? Because every race can be a hunter.

Wow, this is much cleaner than past incarnations of the quest, though the Alliance version hasn't been updated since 9.0.

[Rae888]

...apparently, yep. No idea what can be inferred from that, maybe there's multiple related things coming out at the same time in a giant pre-order bundle as they could just release multiple keys at the same time? Maybe they're completely separate and unrelated?

Seems likely that at least one of these things is part of the Amazon Prime promotion.

[Marlamin]

Seems likely that at least one of these things is part of the Amazon Prime promotion.

That's a pretty good point! Wonder if the reason they haven't talked about them yet is because they'd be 10.0 related?

[Elflover99]

Probably right about the amazon thing, but why would the vulpera pet have no pet battle things but this one would?

[Marlamin]

Probably right about the amazon thing, but why would the vulpera pet have no pet battle things but this one would?

It has battle pet things, but they're encrypted. The battle pet abilities for the other pet accidentally got added during 9.2 PTR.

[Local Ardenweald Faerie]

I dunno about you all, but I think a dragon expansion is very likely given the encrypted mounts and pet. Now, it might not be Explosion of Dragons, but hey...

[AngerFork]

Possible thought: if the Emerald Drake package is part of the pre-order/epic edition bonuses alongside the Vulpera-skeleton thingy pet (VSTP), then it's possible the VSTP might be some sort of updated Drakonid creature. If we are going to the Dragon Isles as so many people have theorized, it would make sense to update some of the former dragon minions & dragon-adjacent creatures to better match the current art quality. Relatedly, the Drakonids haven't been used/updated for quite some time. Since Cata, I think. Using a current skeleton with a tail could be a good starting spot for such an update.

[Vakir]

The Vulpera rig seems very appropriate for something like a Drakonid, yes.

That being said, nothing rules out a Dragon Isles with a northern Eastern Kingdoms revamp or something to that effect but...eh, copium.

[Elflover99]

The Vulpera rig seems very appropriate for something like a Drakonid, yes.

That being said, nothing rules out a Dragon Isles with a northern Eastern Kingdoms revamp or something to that effect but...eh, copium.

Dragon Isles and revamp can come together as Cata had endgame zones separate from the continents.

If this is Cata 2 they will do something similar.

[Nraktja]

Could be what this new model is for!

I don't know if anyone else pointed it out yet, but the seed is literally the Tear of Elune that the Winter Queen and Elune conjured in the 9.1 cutscene. Look at the crescent moon base and the antler design, and on the seed model the antlers seem to be sprouting into a tree with blue leaves. That means they didn't turn it into a new sigil for Ardenweald?

Hmmmm an actual World Tree made using the updated graphics engine as a new city and region for the Night Elves? I've been a very upset Night Elf player for a long time, but I'm very curious now.