Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Teriz]

I think the difference is that we have not had something leak that conclusively links several leaks together.

This image for instance was considered likely, but wasnt considered fully real until the image was found on the Blizzard websites, which in turn made the name Shadowlands confirmed.

The Alexstrasza image is likely, but not really confirmed given we only know the name and nothing else. Could be a fake someone made quickly, slapped a name onto and blurred out a bit to hide evidence.

I'm going with the latter, because I think I've seen that "Alexstraza" somewhere before too. Can't put my finger on it though.

[Zankai27]

Hey, if I'm wrong, I'll freely admit it. I never claim that I'm some Blizzard insider or dev. I simply don't buy the idea that Blizzard is going to make Mage 2.0 when they have a literal Alexstraza class with abilities, concepts, and an established fanbase ready to go.

You're assuming a lot about a concept. All we've heard is it takes "some stuff from Arcane mages" which is pretty unsurprising if there's time elements. If it's the headliner class for a literal Dragonflight expansion, it'll have Dragon elements 100%.

Happy to see you being more open-minded about ideas, though. Props.

[Cheezits]

I will admit two things:

1) The wings on the building could reflect Wildhammers, even if I think they look more elven.
2) If there is no real expansion-bridging event in lore, Blizz doing a flashback to an epic event like Alex breaking free makes sense. She would probably stop the flashback and move on to a small snippet showing the Dragon Islands after.

[Buliwyf the Omen]

Hey, if I'm wrong, I'll freely admit it. I never claim that I'm some Blizzard insider or dev. I simply don't buy the idea that Blizzard is going to make Mage 2.0 when they have a literal Alexstraza class with abilities, concepts, and an established fanbase ready to go.

Tbh a bronze Dragon like Nozdormu is pretty damn close to an Arcane Mage if not for the sand magic*. Same way Kalecgos is pretty much just a superb Mage.

Ysera is pretty much a dragon druid and Alexstrasza is a fire mage healer.

The only real unique one is Deathwing's Black Dragonflight that has no theme overlap in WoW yet.

Which is why we will get playable Dragon Forms to make them unique.

[Hagakure]

Dragonbard? The fuck is a dragonbard? Thr weird offspring of a dragon and a DnD Horny bard?

The mortal foe of the Tinkermancer.

[Shadochi]

In 21 hours scaleface either gains a bunch of credibility or loses it all

[cone of cold]

I tried to AI upscale but I don't really know what I'm doing.
https://imgur.com/hV0JVrL

Figure looks like FF14 Roegadyn to me.

[AngerFork]

I'm aware of that. My question is what abilities could set this class apart that couldn't be accomplished in the Mage or Druid classes? There's only so many ways to skin a cat.

If someone was proposing another Holy or Shadow caster class, we'd be running into the same problem.

There's a few things you could have. Arcane based weapon charging, an Arcane-based healing pet, a healing spec where wounds are cauterized, something like Spellblade Aluriel...you could really do about anything from a class design perspective. It's not that it couldn't potentially be shoehorned into the Mage or Druid setup, but it's similar to how Tinker isn't Engineering...it's about how it's implemented rather than what specific source they are using for their abilities.

[Alexjimithing]

I would guess the cinematic will recap a lot of the history of the flights, especially Alex if she’s going to be the ‘main protag’. I would imagine a lot of current players don’t know the histories of the dragons of Azeroth and recapping, say, Nekros’ enslavement of Alexstraza makes sense.

[Teriz]

Tbh a bronze Dragon like Nozdormu is pretty damn close to an Arcane Mage if not for the sand magic*. Same way Kalecgos is pretty much just a superb Mage.

See Chromie from HotS. She uses Sand blasts that leaves echos which will copy her attacks, and she can port to her echo. She can also set and detonate time traps. Mages can't do that.

Ysera is pretty much a dragon druid and Alexstrasza is a fire mage healer.

TBF, Fire Mages don't heal others. I could see the Red spec be the "damage targets/heal allies" type of healer, remotely similar to Disc Priests, but leaning more on fire-based qualities like DoT/HoT, AoE effects, Cone spells, and ground effects. In addition, her dragon form enhances her abilities.

The only real unique one is Deathwing's Black Dragonflight that has no theme overlap in WoW yet.

I definitely agree that Deathwing is very unique, and would make an awesome basis for a tanking spec.

Which is why we will get playable Dragon Forms to make them unique.

I agree. The question is how will Blizzard implement? I simply don't see them bringing in a 5-spec class.

[Shadochi]

Oh, where is that dragon and orc image from?

[Cheezits]

I would guess the cinematic will recap a lot of the history of the flights, especially Alex if she’s going to be the ‘main protag’. I would imagine a lot of current players don’t know the histories of the dragons of Azeroth and recapping, say, Nekros’ enslavement of Alexstraza makes sense.

It has been brought up on twitter that it would be "bad timing" to deal with Alex's lore after the allegations... but unless they literally retcon out that she was enslaved/raped, it would have to be done eventually. And I feel like Blizz would rather show her breaking out than to pretend it never happened.

[Nightshade711]

There's a few things you could have. Arcane based weapon charging, an Arcane-based healing pet, a healing spec where wounds are cauterized, something like Spellblade Aluriel...you could really do about anything from a class design perspective. It's not that it couldn't potentially be shoehorned into the Mage or Druid setup, but it's similar to how Tinker isn't Engineering...it's about how it's implemented rather than what specific source they are using for their abilities.

I agree with this.
They could even fit 3 specs if they merged blue/bronze to give us the Spellblade Aluriel/spellbreaker/battlemage aesthetic.

Something that I don’t think Mage could accomplish.

[Jekyll]

Tbh a bronze Dragon like Nozdormu is pretty damn close to an Arcane Mage if not for the sand magic*. Same way Kalecgos is pretty much just a superb Mage.

Ysera is pretty much a dragon druid and Alexstrasza is a fire mage healer.

The only real unique one is Deathwing's Black Dragonflight that has no theme overlap in WoW yet.

Which is why we will get playable Dragon Forms to make them unique.

Deathwing was once called the Earthwarder. Sounds like Shaman too me.

[Raetary]

Oh, where is that dragon and orc image from?

Scaleface leaked it.

[Alexjimithing]

It has been brought up on twitter that it would be "bad timing" to deal with Alex's lore after the allegations... but unless they literally retcon out that she was enslaved/raped, it would have to be done eventually. And I feel like Blizz would rather show her breaking out than to pretend it never happened.

They can just be like, ‘Enslaved by orcs, she broke free.’ and skip the whole forced breeding thing. They don’t need to go too in-depth and as long as they don’t I personally don’t think it’s in bad taste. Just me though.

[wombinator04]

Scaleface is actually Blizzard trolling us, Dragonflight is just one big troll.

It's actually gonna be a cosmic expac

[Imotbh]

I am just giving options

But that guy in the cinematic looks like Garrosh to me, and they would definitively have a lot of ways to bring him back, as I pointed out:

- We know that a Lightbound Garrosh is alive and well.
- We know that our Garrosh MIGHT still be out there.
- We know that Garrosh and Zaela COULD have a son.

I don't think any of these are correct though.

- Garrosh was never born in Alternate Draenor. The alternate Grommash had a child but with another woman and it's another character entirely. Here : https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Exarch_Hellscream
- Our Garrosh is dead, has been sent to Revendreth to be milked then ended up in SoD where he literally got obliterated. He's simply gone now. It was a small plot point and nod to players like many other characters they brought back during SL, nothing foreshadowing of the future.
- There is no relationship between Garrosh and Zaela but mutual respect. The rest is only fanfic. Cfr. the "Trivia" section of this page : https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/War...aela?so=search

[Varodoc]

Or, or, or.. hear me out here, it's crazy, actually!

... it's just a flashback. Orcs.. enslaving dragons.. attacking Silvermoon. Something with the chance of maybe, just maybe not following up Shadowlands with another low.

The architecture of that tower is very clearly too elegant and sleek to be dwarven in design.

Also, the Dragons never attacked Silvermoon because it was shielded completely by the Ban'dinoriel. So it wouldn't make sense to show a dragon, and Alexstrasza of all dragons, somehow inside the Ban'dinoriel and on the walls of Silvermoon.

[Zankai27]

Oh, where is that dragon and orc image from?

Scale posted it; apparently it's a still from the cinematic