Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

I wonder if Blizzard will make some statement this week regarding the leak. Could they even push the reveal ahead?

I mean, if we got this two weeks before the reveal, imagine what else we will get in the coming days, for sure something else is going to get leaked.

There is very, very high chance Blizzard put it there to be found. This leak not only increase hype, but also set expectations for theme.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I don't get the fixation on Balor. I've always known it to be a location in the lore and it isn't exactly a deep dive. It's on practically every map and fairly commonplace knowledge. I really don't think "Balor exists" is enough to say "yep, real leak". The whole "Halfling" thing also feels weird—what, precisely, is a "Halfling" in this case? Do they mean a traditional, DnD-style Hobbit? That feels a bit awkward to imagine, especially in conjunction with "Proto-Demons" scourging a random Second War island. It's also hard to imagine that there have just always been Halflings this whole time, just on an island that was owned by a Human Kingdom, fought for before, and everybody knew existed. You could say that's also sort of the case with the Drust, but they've been practically-extinct for the longest time with the exception of a single Thornspeaker, and even then it was a kingdom-wide problem in a very isolated area instead of a specific, tiny island that would probably be fully explored and understood by every Kingdom.

It feels like an asspull to say this simple, Second War-era landmark is somehow host to both "Proto-Demons" and "Halflings" without any further explanation. I could imagine fighting the Stormreavers there, but not much else.

That’s precisely because it’s an asspull and it draws heavily on existing mythology that I think it’s real, but that’s just me

[AOL Instant Messenger]

That’s precisely because it’s an asspull and it draws heavily on existing mythology that I think it’s real, but that’s just me

I don't think it really draws on existing mythology. I think it's a very vague statement that was taken as if it were an intentional Barnum Statement (which I don't even think it was) and people sort of invented this more clever narrative around a random detail in an almost-certainly fake leak. I also needn't remind that they explicitly give us dates which have been proven objectively wrong.

[Civciv]

It would make a lot of sense, and ousting Bwonsamdi also gives Blizzard the opportunity for a future cool villain/raid

Noooo! I don't want my Bwonsamdi to die. I for one, love his sassiness

[Fahrad Wagner]

I don't think it really draws on existing mythology. I think it's a very vague statement that was taken as if it were an intentional Barnum Statement (which I don't even think it was) and people sort of invented this more clever narrative around a random detail in an almost-certainly fake leak. I also needn't remind that they explicitly give us dates which have been proven objectively wrong.

Schedules change all the time, so I wouldn’t give dates too much importance. As for Balor, I’m just really intrigued at the whole Balor/Giants thing, Balor’s daughter being named Ethilnn in Irish mythology and Ettins origins being retconned in Legion… Idk, it reeks of Blizzard’s unsubttle mythology reappropriation, just like they did for the Vrykul and Titan Keepers, and for the constructs in Uldum. It’s because it’s so unoriginal yet somehow fitting that I think this might be it. The thing I struggle more with tbh is Silvermoon as a hostile city… this would piss some players off

Noooo! I don't want my Bwonsamdi to die. I for one, love his sassiness

I love him too haha! And I don’t think he’d die, being the master trickster that he is

[Nymrohd]

It's a great horizontal progression system that would add a lot to WoW. The problem in ESO is that there is no "endgame" content (besides trials aka raids and veteran dungeons) which trivialises the entire game.

It is an absolutely daunting wall to any new player that affects your ability to be optimal and engage in endgame. It also forces casual players with far fewer points to constantly switch between set ups to do fun activities (different setup for Justice system, for gathering and for grinding) which is not at all easy unless you spend a lot of crowns to buy extra slots and the orc dude they added in the previous patch. It works in ESO because normal trials are piss easy and PuGs are not picky at all (and the gap between Veteran DLC Dungeons and Trials and normals is so crazy that people just settle for doing normal modes).
In a game like WoW though? People would never even invite you if you didn't have like 1800+ Champions Points.
And you still need to level alts ofc. Which you want to do since race is FAR more powerful than it is in WoW. And while CPs are account wide, skyshards aren't so after spending hours running like a headless chicken between three anchors in the desert you still have to grind at least some skill points even for a single build to be viable, let alone to have options.

[Wangming]

That’s precisely because it’s an asspull and it draws heavily on existing mythology that I think it’s real, but that’s just me

This. No fake leaker in their right mind would use Balor. It was never you know, BIG in terms of lore. An odd pic for a fake leak and it isn't used in a way a fake leak would.

Now this leak might still be fake, but I feel whoever came up with it actually knows how to make it real sounding.

[Fahrad Wagner]

This. No fake leaker in their right mind would use Balor. It was never you know, BIG in terms of lore. An odd pic for a fake leak and it isn't used in a way a fake leak would.

Now this leak might still be fake, but I feel whoever came up with it actually knows how to make it real sounding.

Also, they wasted Crestfall as an island expedition but not Balor? That’s suspicious to me

[Chickat]

They can easily build him up/make him more interesting by infusing the essence of Galakrond inside him. I kind of like the idea of five crazy dragonheads threatening us all at once

Cho'gall ln steroids.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Schedules change all the time, so I wouldn’t give dates too much importance. As for Balor, I’m just really intrigued at the whole Balor/Giants thing, Balor’s daughter being named Ethilnn in Irish mythology and Ettins origins being retconned in Legion… Idk, it reeks of Blizzard’s unsubttle mythology reappropriation, just like they did for the Vrykul and Titan Keepers, and for the constructs in Uldum. It’s because it’s so unoriginal yet somehow fitting that I think this might be it. The thing I struggle more with tbh is Silvermoon as a hostile city… this would piss some players off

I don't buy it at all. It all seems too convenient to assume the dates just changed because of scheduling, much less by so long, and the whole Balor thing really feels like people are just seeing an irrelevant and poorly-constructed detail and connecting something better to it. I think it's a matter of setting yourselves up for high expectations and far more in the way of cleverness than the original leaker intended—they likely just looked at the "Lore Locations" page on Wowpedia and saw Balor, then decided to run with it without really bothering to look into it too thoroughly.

Perhaps I'm just a little too nosy about these things, but so much of that leak simply doesn't sit right, especially the whole idea of four single-specialization classes, which really is completely unbelievable from a design perspective.

I also don't see why Silvermoon would be a hostile city. That seems completely nonsensical—Lor'Themar isn't the type of person to get villain batted, and I don't really see any good reason why the Blood Elves would abruptly betray the Horde. Maybe there's some kind of coup and Rommath or someone unsavory takes over, but even then I don't see how that could feasibly happen or become an important plot point, especially since it would involve assuming that the whole city could suddenly become entirely hostile to the Horde overnight. There's very little in the way of sensible lore reasons that I could produce for why Silvermoon would ever become hostile.

[Nymrohd]

There are other parts to the system as well. The way expansions are strucutred for example could be something that works way better for wow than their current strategy. Also the idea of front-loading 1 year worth of effort for content that is irrelevant 3 days after launch is hardly a good investment of time and resources, especially when you are encouraged to blaze through it as fast as possible so you can start with you endgame chores on time. It's a self defeating cycle maybe it is worth to look at alternatives. I can certainly see the devs and penny pinchers thinking about it.

I will absolutely agree on the game forcing you to level way too fast if you want to be optimal. The answer to that would be to go back to the model were raids/M+ are not available for a while, maybe the first month. And then when it comes to daily activities like the emissaries . . . I honestly would prefer if the game had ONLY weekly activities instead and things that were daily were not tied to player power in any way. Neither of this really is a similar solution to what ESO does.
And really, ESO is the king of meaningless activities. Dailies all over the world that have a tiny chance to give you a collectible. Profession dailies on as many alts as humanly possible so you can get mats. Constant events with rewards designed to cause as much FOMO as possible.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Now this leak might still be fake, but I feel whoever came up with it actually knows how to make it real sounding.

What about every other detail? The classes? The disproven schedule? It's a leak that came across a highly-predictable name, that's all. I'm legitimately shocked so many people are taking it at such a degree of unquestioning face value simply because the name happened to be right.

[Baedril]

I don't think it really draws on existing mythology. I think it's a very vague statement that was taken as if it were an intentional Barnum Statement (which I don't even think it was) and people sort of invented this more clever narrative around a random detail in an almost-certainly fake leak. I also needn't remind that they explicitly give us dates which have been proven objectively wrong.

Yes, however have you considered: I think the leak is cool and thus I want it to be real?

Looking at it objectively I 100% agree that the date being completely wrong (Especially a date that was so close to the leak time, I could excuse it easier if it was further away) & a bunch of really weird details make it fake, as well as the fact that a small Tirisfal rework in the pre-patch to me points to Lordaeron NOT getting a revamp, as it seems kind of weird to do a soft cleaning up of Tirisfal and then immediately follow that up with a big Tirisfal revamp, but who knows maybe I'm wrong.

However, I really want a new healer and I honestly like basically everything mentioned in the leak so I will excuse it and continue to be hyped.

Edit: As for Silvermoon, there is the whole "Scourge Warlords roaming free" lore, and there is a noticeable Scourge presence in Quel'Thalas, maybe the ruined/undead portion of Silvermoon becomes a scourge warzone? I don't think this is a detail that's completely unbelievable - there's more spins on Silvermoon being a hostile city than just "Lor'themar goes evil".

[Rae888]

The thing I struggle more with tbh is Silvermoon as a hostile city… this would piss some players off

Hostile silvermoon would definitely make me angry but I also can totally see them doing it

[Wangming]

What about every other detail? The classes? The disproven schedule? It's a leak that came across a highly-predictable name, that's all. I'm legitimately shocked so many people are taking it at such a degree of unquestioning face value simply because the name happened to be right.

Funny thing is while you say the name is highly predictable, there was no other leak with this name.
The classes? Well the concet sounds weird, but Blizzard doesn't shy away from weird stuff. If I told you you would get new races using existing animation rigs that you need to grind out reputation for on another character before you can unlock them for character creation and they don't even give you a proper starting experience, you would think I'm off my meds. But that's what Allied Races are.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Hostile silvermoon would definitely make me angry but I also can totally see them doing it

Maybe if the Light invades through the Sunwell as suggested previously in this thread?

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Edit: As for Silvermoon, there is the whole "Scourge Warlords roaming free" lore, and there is a noticeable Scourge presence in Quel'Thalas, maybe the ruined/undead portion of Silvermoon becomes a scourge warzone? I don't think this is a detail that's completely unbelievable - there's more spins on Silvermoon being a hostile city than just "Lor'themar goes evil".

I'd certainly buy that if not for the explicit comparison to Suramar. I suppose I could imagine it being that the Darkfallen could take over Silvermoon at the highest levels and brainwash the leadership, but even that sounds pretty faulty—I can't imagine the entirety of Silvermoon, including what would have to be the bulk of the military, deciding "you know what? Let's betray the Horde because the shifty-looking, not-brainwashed guys say we should!"

[Fahrad Wagner]

Funny thing is while you say the name is highly predictable, there was no other leak with this name.
The classes? Well the concet sounds weird, but Blizzard doesn't shy away from weird stuff. If I told you you would get new races using existing animation rigs that you need to grind out reputation for on another character before you can unlock them for character creation and they don't even give you a proper starting experience, you would think I'm off my meds. But that's what Allied Races are.

The lack of plural in the leak’s name is also a big thing for me. No leaker in their right mind would pick Dragonflight instead of Dragonflights? Idk, this really is suspiciously close to the truth to me

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Funny thing is while you say the name is highly predictable, there was no other leak with this name.
The classes? Well the concet sounds weird, but Blizzard doesn't shy away from weird stuff. If I told you you would get new races using existing animation rigs that you need to grind out reputation for on another character before you can unlock them for character creation and they don't even give you a proper starting experience, you would think I'm off my meds. But that's what Allied Races are.

No, I wouldn't think you're off your meds. I absolutely would buy that idea as a feasible implementation of subraces that isn't just a drop-down menu.

Secondly, just because there was no other leak with that precise name doesn't mean it wasn't predictable. It's a preexisting concept encapsulated in a single compound word that could've easily been drawn out of a hat or otherwise guessed by sheer luck.

[Nymrohd]

On the Dragonflight leak, Balor, Uldaz and Kezan zones that would be part of your daily grind that are all over the map . . .
Blizzard supposedly understood that disjointed zones like back in Cata don't work. Then they did Shadowlands were zones are even more disjointed than ever. And the thing is, Blizzard doesn't really care about our feedback because they prefer using metrics. And I guarantee you that those metrics have been extremely unflattering to disjointed zone design? How many times in Shadowlands did you take a flight path from one zone to the other, tabbed out and did not tab back, leaving your character to AFK and eventually DC at the flight path? They know it happens.
This is the thing with BfA and Shadowlands, they have been designed, far more than anything else in WoW, to WASTE our time. Not to engage us with gameplay, just to waste our time. With BfA it was with numerous World Quests that were UTTER TRASH, horrible collect ten bear asses quests in a world suffering from a pandemic off assless bears. Shadowlands made those world quests even more common, added them in a daily variety as well, removed the fast "kill this rare" world quests that everyone prefered to do and added insane travel times as well.

If they have learned nothing from all this even though the metrics must be visible and design an expac with disjointed zones then we have far bigger issues than WoW halflings displacing gnome Goldshire hookers as the loli du jour.