Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Revamp Man]

It's still older raids being appropriately scaled to the newest raids. Really the only thing it has going against it that I can see is the lack of tier sets that can be gained at higher ilvl.

yeah some of that gear is nice at a higher ilvl but my guild already plans on not doing SoD

[Nymrohd]

yeah some of that gear is nice at a higher ilvl but my guild already plans on not doing SoD

Honestly if all three raids are up at the same time you are really just doing whatever you find most fun. There will be some drama with BiS ofc. I will assume that Domination Shards will not work (but maybe they will and they will be changed somehow). Sylvanas drops some amazing gear (bow, quiver, daggers, trinket) as does KT (Jaithys?). Ofc the question is, will skips remain active? Will the final bosses all keep dropping higher ilvl gear (you may well be able to get BiS from just those 7 bosses, especially with Creation Catalyst).

And that's not to mention that Karazhan and Mechagon had very interesting loot (as does Tazavesh to some extent). M+ vault rewards will be a lot better than usual.

[TomatoBisque]

Honestly if all three raids are up at the same time you are really just doing whatever you find most fun. There will be some drama with BiS ofc. I will assume that Domination Shards will not work (but maybe they will and they will be changed somehow). Sylvanas drops some amazing gear (bow, quiver, daggers, trinket) as does KT (Jaithys?). Ofc the question is, will skips remain active? Will the final bosses all keep dropping higher ilvl gear (you may well be able to get BiS from just those 7 bosses, especially with Creation Catalyst).

And that's not to mention that Karazhan and Mechagon had very interesting loot (as does Tazavesh to some extent). M+ vault rewards will be a lot better than usual.

Morgan Day mentioned in his recent interview with Warcraft Radio that they've heard "loud and clear" that people don't want dom shards to be relevant in Season 4. Which, like, fair, the helm+shoulders+chest slots would already conflict heavily with tier and would have made gearing a nightmare to manage between juggling 3 dom shards for that set+4 piece set of tier+your two legendaries

Also I suspect alpha/beta will be starting earlier, using the time between announcement and release of previous expacs to estimate 10.0's release needs to factor in that previously, expacs have always been announced at big conventions (blizzcon/gamescom), whereas now Blizzard is taking the Nintendo Direct approach of just announcing it whenever they feel like it. If things were still how they had been, we'd have had 10.0 announced back in November of last year, or February at the latest with Blizzconline. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we get an alpha before the end of May

[ZyntosAran]

Also I suspect alpha/beta will be starting earlier, using the time between announcement and release of previous expacs to estimate 10.0's release needs to factor in that previously, expacs have always been announced at big conventions (blizzcon/gamescom), whereas now Blizzard is taking the Nintendo Direct approach of just announcing it whenever they feel like it. If things were still how they had been, we'd have had 10.0 announced back in November of last year, or February at the latest with Blizzconline. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we get an alpha before the end of May

I would actually not be surprised if alpha ends up starting shortly after announcement on the same day. There has to be a reason why they are putting the announcement on that day, maybe its because they are sure they are ready with releasing the alpha at that point.


Apart from that, how do you think the Announcement will go? Video or Livestream? Only a trailer / cinematic + gameplay teaser or panels afterwards?

I for one wish for a long livestream (prerecorded I guess is a given), in the form of how they handled it at gamescom: Show a teaser, a cinematic and the feature trailer, and then talk about the key points in a 1 - 1 1/2 h panel. Afterwards, bring up the alpha so people are invested in the datamining etc.

[username993720]

Too low rez to be heritage armor. Unless you mean remaking it?

It was added in BfA, though.

[Revamp Man]

Honestly if all three raids are up at the same time you are really just doing whatever you find most fun. There will be some drama with BiS ofc. I will assume that Domination Shards will not work (but maybe they will and they will be changed somehow). Sylvanas drops some amazing gear (bow, quiver, daggers, trinket) as does KT (Jaithys?). Ofc the question is, will skips remain active? Will the final bosses all keep dropping higher ilvl gear (you may well be able to get BiS from just those 7 bosses, especially with Creation Catalyst).

And that's not to mention that Karazhan and Mechagon had very interesting loot (as does Tazavesh to some extent). M+ vault rewards will be a lot better than usual.

Fire mage will rock

[micwini]

[ercarp]

The funniest part about this meme is that you can reverse the roles and it's just as accurate if not more so.

[Hellspawn]

I mean that's the thing! Sure it would be neat if they could be reborn as NE and all, BUT if they took the shape of one of the Ardenweald creatures, that's just more fun for us as players lol. New "races" are always a huge sell, and I genuinely think something like this would be a better option for SL AR's than if they just... decided to leave the afterlife and come to slump it up in Azeroth.

Such a thing would very much make the Sylvar alliance rather than neutral tho, so an Horde equivalent should be needed?

I'm more on the side of let them get reborn as NE.... but I can't deny if they get reborn as Azeroth Dryards... or dryards on two legs (so like the Ardenweald Satyrs but with the upper part being Night Elf) would be an more interesting choice.

[ercarp]

Looks like someone posted a self-proclaimed "high effort leak" on /r/wow, lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...h_effort_fake/

I feel like the people making these logos have completely missed the memo on how the logos have actually been getting more and more elaborate after WoD. No one is going to buy into a logo that looks like it belongs in 2007.

[Hellspawn]

Yes to that. And to the female version:

It would need higher resolution textures which probably already exist also some of the armored parts should be actually 3D models...

[ZyntosAran]

Looks like someone posted a self-proclaimed "high effort leak" on /r/wow, lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...h_effort_fake/

I feel like the people making these logos have completely missed the memo on how the logos have actually been getting more and more elaborate after WoD. No one is going to buy into a logo that looks like it belongs in 2007.

"will provide an all new leveling experience" - continues to explain the exact system they introduced in shadowlands
"new character customization" - with pictures without new char customization

apart from the text being just...no and the logo being a fucking joke

Oh, and it says "buy now" and "available now" - it would say "preorder now"

[Raetary]

It's literally just the Shadowlands page but shopped to be green and flowery.

[maplesyrupgl]

I know 2 times doesn't make a pattern, but I'm certain I've figured out Blizz's planned expansion pattern.

Step 1 = More terrestrial expansion that acts to set up a bridge to the next cosmic expansion
Step 2 = A cosmic expansion where we take out the "ultimate" threat of one of the cosmic forces

- WoD might not have seemed like a "terrestrial" expansion, since we went to a different planet/universe/timeline/whatever, but thematically it was. The theme of the expansion was simple: war against a big angry army with weapons. But it really served to set up Gul'dan, who was our bridge to Legion.

- Legion was the ultimate face off vs the Legion and Sargeras, the biggest threat of the Chaos cosmic force.

- BfA was a terrestrial expansion with a seemingly simple them: a war between the alliance and horde. Now, Nzoth might seem like a cosmic threat, but Blizzard clearly think of Old Gods as a terrestrial threat. The ultimate cosmic threat of Darkness is the Voidlords. This explains why Nzoth was killed in a single patch, Blizzard don't see him as a big deal compared to what's to come. BfA actually served to set up Sylvanas, who was our bridge to Shadowlands.

- Shadowlands was the ultimate face off vs the Jailer, the biggest threat of the Death cosmic force.

The next logical step is that the next expansion is a simpler terrestrial threat expansion that will set up a character who will lead us to a cosmic expansion where we take on the ultimate threat of a different cosmic force. I think they'll leave void for last, so my best bet is Light. I think we'll get Dragon Isles next expansion, but during the course of the expansion maybe Turalyon will turn into a foe, or Yrel will show up, something will lead us into the expansion after where we fight the ultimate threat of Light, whomever that may be. (evil Naaru? or some shit they pull out their ass like the Jailer?)

[Varodoc]

You know, I might actually fall for that reddit leak if the artwork of the new zone wasn't a shameless artwork of the Hanamura map from Overwatch, seen from the building where the Capture Point A is located. Redditors are always so thorough in their analysis, what a disappointment to fall for such a cheap mistake.

[Jekyll]

Strange that they decided to make heritage weapons before every race got armor. Especially since it's perfect time for Undead/Nelf Heritage from story perspective.

They didn't HAVE to make the weapon models for 9.2.5. It was already in-game but wasn't attainable.

[Shadochi]

im all for them make more appearance assets already in the game or that they developed available to player, bonus if they add a small quest chain to it. In SL I felt there was a small amount of quests lines that werent part of a campaign and thus felt like a grind (par ZM which has plenty of side quest lines).

Sure I would like to see them add the remaining heritage but if they are putting art development hours into something else this is ok as well.

As for the NElf heritage armor, while that NPC armor (from BfA?) is a good base, I think its a bit too basic for players. Keep much of it like it is but add some more optional armor pieces in nelf style.

For the remaining races I guess its a bit of a case that there is already a lot of armor in many of those races style in the recent few expacs that are still good quality so they might have issues pulling it off.
Human - Arathi Warfront sets.
NElf - Darkshore Warfront.
Draenei - (a bit of a stretch) a lot of the WoD armor is Draenei themed

Orc - Arathi Warfront sets
Undead - Darkshore Warfront sets
Troll - BfA armor

Pandaren - a lot of Monk sets in general share the same style

If yo were to even just look at the icons on the playable races page its a bit harder to distinct which races don't have a heritage armor
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/game/races

[ZyntosAran]

Fuck I want a battlemage class or spec so bad. I know Enhance is kind of close but it doesnt match the aesthetic or fantasy at all.

Battlemage, Chronomancer and Spellbreaker are my classes / specs that would make me fall in love with wow a second time.

[8bithamster]

The funniest part about this meme is that you can reverse the roles and it's just as accurate if not more so.

Found the Tinker in that comic (Joking ofcourse)

[ercarp]

Found the Tinker in that comic (Joking ofcourse)

Nah, I don't really care that much about Tinkers. But based on some of the discussions I've seen around here, it often seems like the ones making fun of pro-Tinkers are the ones that are the most triggered. I don't really get it personally... I feel like people should be allowed to speculate on whatever class they want without being ridiculed or starting a pointless flame war that goes on for 30 pages.