Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Polybius]

You mean all those things that got changed because of player feedback? You're not making a terribly good case for yourself.

Azerite and mission tables were DOA, weren’t changed until the final patch of their expansion despite Beta feedback.

[ercarp]

You mean all those things that got changed because of player feedback? You're not making a terribly good case for yourself.

What exactly do you think got changed? Mission Tables are still in the game and they somehow made them even worse in Shadowlands when they tried to make them more "interactive". It was at least better when it was simpler because that made it easier to no-brain it quickly and then just forget about it.

Azerite Armor wasn't changed. They added new shit like Corruption and Essences, but Azerite Armor remained awful for the entire duration of the expansion.

Covenants are perhaps 5% better than they were at launch, but I don't think we should be commending Blizzard for drip-feeding us with small fixes at the very end of the expansion. I don't count that as listening to player feedback, because listening to player feedback would have meant changing Covenants for the better AT LAUNCH (you know, in response to the player feedback given in Alpha/Beta).

Do your research.

[Polybius]

I actually liked the Renown system, my only issue with it was account-wide progression. It's meant to imitate Season Pass rewards tracks, but in order to fill the tracks here you need 160 levels (the first 40 Renown) multiplied by 4 unique armor types.

Good luck convincing players to grind with that many levels, in any game. The nerfs were a godsend.

[Fiercelord]

The renown system was okay. I think they will do the same thing with 5 dragonflights. However, I hope they won't make too many tmog that will cost bunch of "anima"(I mean the currency that will be for Dragonflight armor). I've finished Venthyr, switched to Necrolord and realized how many anima I have to spend on tmog and realized I won't be able to collect stuff from Night Fae and Kyrian. And I hope they don't repeat the same thing with Grateful Offerings. Too much is needed to grind to get everything.

[delphiskye]

hey could the dragonflights have something to do why the elements have gone nuts again? Wind elementals in westfall fire and sludge in wetlands wind in tanris water in swamp of sorrows. Or could that be the result of player screw up? We have killed 2 of the elementals rulers

[Polybius]

The renown system was okay. I think they will do the same thing with 5 dragonflights. However, I hope they won't make too many tmog that will cost bunch of "anima"(I mean the currency that will be for Dragonflight armor). I've finished Venthyr, switched to Necrolord and realized how many anima I have to spend on tmog and realized I won't be able to collect stuff from Night Fae and Kyrian. And I hope they don't repeat the same thing with Grateful Offerings. Too much is needed to grind to get everything.

Same here. I suspect the players who say anima is easy to come by have played every single day since the start, which is absurd for the average player. Even if possible, there's a decay in attention span and patience when you do the same task every day for nearly a whole year, this applies to more than just video games. I value my time a lot, I just don't have as many free hours as I used to.

[Fiercelord]

Exactly. Not to mention how there are plenty of tmogs acquired trough RNG quests which is a disaster. I really wonder why would they design it like that.

[Hitei]

hey could the dragonflights have something to do why the elements have gone nuts again? Wind elementals in westfall fire and sludge in wetlands wind in tanris water in swamp of sorrows. Or could that be the result of player screw up? We have killed 2 of the elementals rulers

??? Did you miss the Cataclysm?

[Dracullus]

I mean, I agree with everything you're saying here, but I don't think Blizzard is the type to change course in response to player feedback. They're too proud for that. Remember Mission Tables? Reviled universally by pretty much everyone, but they're still in the game because Blizzard stubbornly wants to make them work, even though we all know they never will. And don't even get me started on Azerite Armor or Covenants.

And all of this arrogance about their flawless design is only magnified when it comes to their storytelling, which they must genuinely believe to be the best in the industry. When they created that whole cosmic chart thing for Chronicles, they had already decided "this is the story we want to tell", and Shadowlands just proves us that they're only working to tick off all the cosmic boxes with each new expansion. Shadowlands didn't feel like a natural progression of the story, it was more of a "guys, we need to come up with an expansion for the cosmic force of Death, how do we do that?" and then they just brainstormed a bunch of shit in one afternoon and called it a day.

...and cycle continues.

Literally every.single.patch in SL had changes that were reaction for player feedback. Then on PTR people say "finally they listen". Then 2 weeks later people (same people?) say "Blizzard never listen".

9.0:
Leveling changes
Returning old spells/making more spells available for all specs
Return of PVP vendor
Reducing grind almost to the ground and completely removing 'infinite' progression
Targetable legendaries
Making gear 'simple' and 'matter' - of course now people deny it, but it was feedback after Blizzard shower us with gear during titanforging times
Making profession matter - this is example of wrong feedback, people said they want profession MATTER, but in reality want profession to be INTERESTING and that are 2 completely different things
Determined stats on crafted gear
Great Vault instead of rng box

9.1:
Gear progression path for solo players
Torghast changes (progression path, removing death cap)
Flying doesn't require any rep grind anymore
Redesigning Maw
PVP gear no longer most efficient way to gear for PVE players

9.1.5
No more punishment for switching covenants
Removing all restrictions with covenants cosmetics, which de facto gave reason to do this content at all for main focused people
Removing conduit energy

9.2
Return of tier sets in better form (available not just from raids, hell even solo players will be able to get them)
Pernament Mage Tower
Torghast completely optional for progression

9.2.5
Cross faction instances

Of course every time Blizzard also makes new problems, ignore some good feedback, listen to some bad feedback, hold back with some changes on purpose. But "they never listen" is just brainless take and discourage people from giving new feedback at all.

I actually liked the Renown system, my only issue with it was account-wide progression. It's meant to imitate Season Pass rewards tracks, but in order to fill the tracks here you need 160 levels (the first 40 Renown) multiplied by 4 unique armor types.

Good luck convincing players to grind with that many levels, in any game. The nerfs were a godsend.

I agree. Blizzard often bounce between various levels of grind and it always hurt either altoholics or people that want have something to do on main on regular basis. Account-wide systems and reducing alts to just leveling & gearing would finally fix it.

[therumblings]

the elements have gone nuts again?

When did this happen?

[Fahrad Wagner]

When did this happen?

Island expeditions clues

[therumblings]

Island expeditions clues

I forgot all about them, wasn't one of them the first canonical mention of the Dragon Isles?

[Fahrad Wagner]

I forgot all about them, wasn't one of them the first canonical mention of the Dragon Isles?

Yes exactly, that, Drakkari trolls fleeing Northrend, Elementals gone mad, resurgence of some past "lesser" villains, etc.

[therumblings]

Yes exactly, that, Drakkari trolls fleeing Northrend, Elementals gone mad, resurgence of some past "lesser" villains, etc.

Speaking of that, I'm surprised Wrathion isn't on the art and Alexstrasza is, assuming it's real. The Island quest made it seem like Wrathion would be one of the main characters, which, he probably is going to be anyway, but then again Bolvar did pretty much nothing in Shadowlands so maybe Alex will have the same role.

[Fiercelord]

As much as I want Wrathion to be on the art, I guess they put Alexstrazsa for obvious marketing plans
Wrathion is one of my favorite WoW characters.

[Fahrad Wagner]

As much as I want Wrathion to be on the art, I guess they put Alexstrazsa for obvious marketing plans
Wrathion is one of my favorite WoW characters.

Same here! Although, Alex deserves the spotlight on a dragon expansion, so I'm fine with that

[therumblings]

It will be pretty interesting if DF ends up being an Alexstrasza expansion the same way Shadowlands was a Sylvanas expansion (minus the bad lore, of course ) I honestly wasn't expecting an Alex focus so it will be a nice surprise if it actually ends up being a good addition to the lore.

[Nachtigal]

It would be neat but I just don't see a world revamp happening until after we've dealt with the Void Lords. I think revamping Azeroth after the Cosmic Saga has been closed off will make the most sense as then we can return to more humble worldbuilding without worrying about the threat of a Purple Space God In Space™.

I'm hoping they just shut the game down after the void lords are dealt with. Shut it down to allow them to begin developing single player RPGs Elder Scrolls style. Get us to explore the new world/universe after defending Azeroth from the very last threat. Get some really nice graphics in there to revitalize the wonderous adventures we had when the game was fresh. Deal with relatively smaller, non-world destroying threats. Something similar to preventing Arthas from killing off the planet, killing him atop Icecrown Citadel. You know, still dire circumstances, but not Sargeras thrusting a sword into the planet. All with fancy shiny graphics available with today's tech.

[Yus atath]

I hope the devs come up with something else instead of another artifact power/covenant system. PLEASE come up with something new and FRESH. Same sh* since Legion.

Like c’mon Bliz step your game UP.

[Nyel]

It will be pretty interesting if DF ends up being an Alexstrasza expansion the same way Shadowlands was a Sylvanas expansion (minus the bad lore, of course ) I honestly wasn't expecting an Alex focus so it will be a nice surprise if it actually ends up being a good addition to the lore.

Honestly, we don't need yet another female poster girl.

BfA was all about Sylvanas, Azshara and Jaina. Shadowlands was all about Sylvanas. I think Wrathion - maybe in tandem with Alexstrasza - would work way better than just another female lead. Wrathion's human model is the sickest of all the Dragons anyway.