Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Wangming]

There needs to be a person somewhere in the company that is forcing parity in racial storylines. Legion was by far the worst for me mostly because it had an insane number of opportunities to build every race. Your race and your class are your character identity and I think for most people they will respond best to story hooks that tie the best to those two, even more than their faction.

You were really encouraged/forced to do alts to get the story.

For pandaren it was easy cause you just need to do monk and you are all set. Sure there are other pandas here and there but mostly it was a monk thing.

For worgen there was a split. If you are interested in the Gilnean part of things, you go Rogue and join up with Tess. If you want to wrap up the worgen story, you roll Balance Druids.

Orcs can go Shaman for Thrall, or Death Knight for Nazgrim.

I would imagine Draenei would go priests. Forsaken would go Shadowpriest to meet with still living Calia and to figure out what is the deal with Tirisfall.

Blood Elves fo Paladin and follow Liadrin.

[Nymrohd]

I've beaten the dead horse that is Legion relegating the non-Forsaken elements of the Horde to the blood elves helping their purple mini-mes repeat the blood elf TBC storyline and Aethas sending you to assassinate a muffin-stealing otter enough already. But one of my main issues regarding class focus is that unlike race focus it's not agnostic. Not all who have the same class in the gameplay represent the same fantasy and it's why there was such a huge gulf in quality between the best order hall in the DKs and the worst one in the priests. A race-focused expansion is overdue.

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To add to the bible-length expose on the things BFA fucked up, Island Expeditions. You have all of these lore tidbits, new sub-groups of established races, explorable landmasses and then you relegate said landmasses to crappy instanced content and gut everything from the mogu resurgence to the new Mantid queen as throw-aways in a patch full of reused assets. And yes, Uldum was better in BFA than OG.

Hey, Sira kept sending us to kill poor bears and cats in the wilderness as if they were demonic threats all expansion long. At least Aethas had a reason to want the damn alien marsupial dead, it stole his muffin!

Island expeditions remain unplayable btw. Tried to do them solo but there is enough pressure from the enemy AI that you cannot just take your time and explore the zone. They should have just made that a PvP mode and allowed us to explore them in peace. SO MUCH LORE and effort in them.

[Das Thora]

Oh yeah, for sure. If the expansion turns out to be about Sylvanas or the First Ones or something equally stupid, it'll still be entertaining to watch the meltdown.

Even something as simple as 'it's Shadowlands, but Dragon-flavored' would be awful. lol

[horizon nowhere]

This is another 'leak' from reddit I haven't seen posted here. u/BlizzconMurloc
Hey.

The info I have is from mid-January, things might have changed, improved, or been scrapped since. Keep that in mind.

There is a new race that is a cross between a Vrykul and a dragon.

A new class called the "Envoker". Ranged DPS spec, and a healing spec. I just know the healing spec uses healing flames ala Red Dragons.

Dragon Isles are 4 zones total. One is covered completely in ice and snow. Beware what lies frozen under the ice.

Azshara has made her way to the Dragon Isles and is a reluctant ally for a portion of the leveling.

Wrathion is not Wrathion.

There is a Scarlet Crusade dungeon, featuring Calia Menethil's trans son. Hence the confusion about the 8.3 books saying she has a son and us knowing she has a daughter. You will hear A LOT about this during the presentation on Tuesday.

Uldaz houses the only tool powerful enough to usher in the void lords. Not Wrathion has a keen interest in this tool.

Alexstrasza unites the Dragonflights as one, becoming the Prime Dragonflight. And it's lead by the Council of Five Dragons. Cliché, I know.

A Windrunner bites the dust.

Player Housing is in, and works pretty much like the Garrison. If you wanna put a table in your room, you got 4 slots where it can go etc. It works like Garrison plots, essentially. No trade chat in your house, you can't queue up for dungeons, search for parties etc in your house either, it is completely instanced and is not meant to be your hub at all. To do anything other than sit AFK, you gotta leave your house. No one else can see your house unless you grant them permission to visit. You can only have your house be in one of the new Dragon Isles zones. Lore characters come to visit your house and bring gifts once a week.

Black Market Auction House rework. Now works like an actual auction with real-time bids. "Going once, going twice..." You can't just pay gold cap and walk away anymore. Every item is up for one hour. One item per hour. More items added, mostly Naxx 40 stuff. Corrupted Ashbringer, Atiesh (Sold 5 fragments at the time) and Elite PvP gear from past expansions.

We find out who is trying to kill Chromie in the "Deaths of Chromie" scenario. Hint: People won't like it.

There is a focus on cinematics in Dragonflight. They want more content people can "react" to online, react videos are a good way to get attention to your game. Note: In-game cinematics.

That's all folks, happy Easter.

[Raxacorico]

You were really encouraged/forced to do alts to get the story.

For pandaren it was easy cause you just need to do monk and you are all set. Sure there are other pandas here and there but mostly it was a monk thing.

For worgen there was a split. If you are interested in the Gilnean part of things, you go Rogue and join up with Tess. If you want to wrap up the worgen story, you roll Balance Druids.

Orcs can go Shaman for Thrall, or Death Knight for Nazgrim.

I would imagine Draenei would go priests. Forsaken would go Shadowpriest to meet with still living Calia and to figure out what is the deal with Tirisfall.

Blood Elves fo Paladin and follow Liadrin.

It was my only downside for legion, that one had to have 12 alts to experience 12 'small' storylines that you'd otherwise miss. I honestly didn't know DK's made four new horsemen, until BFA launched when I watched a lore recap of legion. Other than that, Legion is the best modern post-cata expansion.

[Nymrohd]

You were really encouraged/forced to do alts to get the story.

For pandaren it was easy cause you just need to do monk and you are all set. Sure there are other pandas here and there but mostly it was a monk thing.

For worgen there was a split. If you are interested in the Gilnean part of things, you go Rogue and join up with Tess. If you want to wrap up the worgen story, you roll Balance Druids.

Orcs can go Shaman for Thrall, or Death Knight for Nazgrim.

I would imagine Draenei would go priests. Forsaken would go Shadowpriest to meet with still living Calia and to figure out what is the deal with Tirisfall.

Blood Elves fo Paladin and follow Liadrin.

See this is the issue. Races are not people. They are entire races. It started in Wrath but got worse ever since; specific characters are meant to be the hooks for entire races, even when several of their storylines are entirely personal. Nothing Liadrin does in Legion has to do with the blood elves. The actual Blood Elf lore in Legion is for the fire mage artifact. Not even Thas'dorah since that scenario is focused on the Legion itself and Alleria to an extent. We do not explore the history of the Doomhammer to retrieve it, we don't even go to Outland; it's all in Deepholme. Tuure is strongly linked to Draenei history but we don't find out it was left in Karabor and try and find it in the Black Temple with Akama; we find it in the same spaceship used for 2-3 other artifacts. I could go on for several of your examples.

So the fact that you are making these parallels is problematic.

[Super Dickmann]

Hey, Sira kept sending us to kill poor bears and cats in the wilderness as if they were demonic threats all expansion long. At least Aethas had a reason to want the damn alien marsupial dead, it stole his muffin!

Island expeditions remain unplayable btw. Tried to do them solo but there is enough pressure from the enemy AI that you cannot just take your time and explore the zone. They should have just made that a PvP mode and allowed us to explore them in peace. SO MUCH LORE and effort in them.

For me, the peak of world quests was Talanji telling me that a fish in a random river in Zandalar wished for my death and I had to kill it first before it acts on its plans for murder. A close second is Nathanos laughing maniacally as I throw onions at birds.

I've been wanting to do it for ages, but it's still not possible. We can only hope Explosion of Dragons makes it easy.

[Das Thora]

Which leak would you all LIKE to be true (even if it 100% isn't)?

[KayRule]

Okay, there's nothing of merit to pay attention to this leak. The real reveal is in less than 40 hours and nothing about this is noteworthy because it was posted yesterday and there's nothing that gives it any credence. This is the fucking "cinematic" leak all over again.

[ercarp]

A new class called the "Envoker". Ranged DPS spec, and a healing spec. I just know the healing spec uses healing flames ala Red Dragons.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the new class is a misspelling of both Evoker and Invoker.

[horizon nowhere]

Which leak would you all LIKE to be true (even if it 100% isn't)?

Personally I liked the EoA leak the most.

[ercarp]

Which leak would you all LIKE to be true (even if it 100% isn't)?

I think most of the written leaks this year have been pretty subpar, so I guess none of them.

[Syegfryed]

Which leak would you all LIKE to be true (even if it 100% isn't)?

Anything that include a draconic class and a humanoid race, and anything that exclude elves

[Wangming]

I think it's also important for every team leader to enter the acquisition from MS with a success. While devs and writers are probably safe on the medium term, leaders are at best safe on the short term and they need the better negotiating position to not get the chop.

Also yes. I mean I don't want to put all the blame on him, but the first expansion where Ion had full control and no hand holding from the old guard was BfA. He doesn't have a very good track record. As raid designer? Yes. As director? Nope.

[Tiradon]

Would be really nice if we had thread marks to know what it's going on. Been off all weekend due to easter, any new 'leaks' or 'rumours' going?

[Wangming]

See this is the issue. Races are not people. They are entire races. It started in Wrath but got worse ever since; specific characters are meant to be the hooks for entire races, even when several of their storylines are entirely personal. Nothing Liadrin does in Legion has to do with the blood elves. The actual Blood Elf lore in Legion is for the fire mage artifact. Not even Thas'dorah since that scenario is focused on the Legion itself and Alleria to an extent. We do not explore the history of the Doomhammer to retrieve it, we don't even go to Outland; it's all in Deepholme. Tuure is strongly linked to Draenei history but we don't find out it was left in Karabor and try and find it in the Black Temple with Akama; we find it in the same spaceship used for 2-3 other artifacts. I could go on for several of your examples.

So the fact that you are making these parallels is problematic.

Yeah I get that. But it is the best we can hope for. Whenever there is focus on a race as a whole it is inevitably something tragic like the loss of a leader or a homeland.

Which leak would you all LIKE to be true (even if it 100% isn't)?

My own.

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Oh yeah, I'm sure the new class is a misspelling of both Evoker and Invoker.

And Endwalker.

[ercarp]

Would be really nice if we had thread marks to know what it's going on. Been off all weekend due to easter, any new 'leaks' or 'rumours' going?

Nothing major. Scaleface dropped by to say a couple more things over the weekend, but you may have been here for it.

[Das Thora]

Shadowbringers (announced 2018, released 2019)
Shadowlands (announced 2019, released 2020)

Endwalker (announced early 2021, released 2021)
Eternity's End (announced late 2021, released 2022)

End of Dragons (announced 2020, released 2022)
Dragonflight (announced 2022...)

Blizzard you did it again

[Teriz]

I believe if we’re getting a new class next expansion, it’ll be one of these classes;

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...pt-2018-(long)

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...s-Concept-2022

WoW expansion classes are always directly based on lore characters, and pull abilities directly from those characters. Blizzard has also always given players the ability to play those characters in their other WC-related games before bringing them into WoW.

I don’t see this situation as being anything different.

[KayRule]

I believe if we’re getting a new class next expansion, it’ll be one of these classes;

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...pt-2018-(long)

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...s-Concept-2022

WoW expansion classes are always directly based on lore characters, and pull abilities directly from those characters. Blizzard has also always given players the ability to play those characters in their other WC-related games before bringing them into WoW.

I don’t see this situation as being anything different.

Well hopefully they finally break that mold and give us something cool and good and not restrict themselves to bizarre rules and restrictions the fanbase has concocted.