Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Das Thora]

And really nothing says it's a race. It can just be a mob in Dragon Isles. I still don't think it looks draconian enough though. The Argonian gecko head is just not dragon enough.

The first leak was literally a character creation screen. lol If you believe the new ones, why wouldn't you believe the original one?

[Chickat]

So you pick from tree fork or soul jazz hands. Insteresting

[Super Dickmann]

This looks significantly less shit. What wonders putting some clothes on can do for a horrible body.

[Yus atath]

Who’s a Blizzard employee??

[Ferlion]

Even as a whole, most of the choices combined were still non-impactful passive percent-based bonuses. There were few that drastically changed how the class was played. Most of the time it was going a major in one spec and a minor in another to get a form of soft dual-spec. Even that was really light where again, most of the benefits were passive that really didn't change your core gameplay, just boosted some variables.

Whereas now, using frost mage as an example. There are three clear playstyles, the 'Icy Veins, Ice Lance spam" build, the "Glacial Shard Mega-Cannon" build, and the "Ray of Frost" build with minor adjustments like double blink, or move while casting. Or choosing more cleave, more aoe. The choices players have are WAY more impactful in this new system despite having a less perceived choice. The big problem was balancing these specs. "Ray of Frost" build never really saw the light of day in any expansion, it was always severely under-tuned in most content. "Icy Veins" build was meta in Legion and Shadowlands for the majority of both expansions, and in BFA "Glacial Shard" was the only dominant choice.

Now if they can strike a balance between the two, possibly building in some of the more interesting azerite traits and legendary effects, then we might have a real winner here.

Early TBC, there was a window before T6 where outscaled and pushed everyone into shadowbolt canon. I had three solid playstyles with Demonology utilizing the old talent trees.

Of course there was SL/SL and it's various incarnations. Ruin/Demo Builds..

But there was also Insta Corr heavy movement builds. Or, high crit buff builds where I could provide various resources to the group. Builds where you kept Corruption under the GCD, but not technically instant. Builds you could dip into to grab Shadowburn.

Each had similar parts, but ultimately played differently. Of course, going into late T5 and early T6, dot scaling just stopped being a thing that mattered. But I had a lot of flexibility on my Warlock. I didn't really lose that flexibility until Wrath, where they changed the talent trees so you couldn't go half and half.

[horizon nowhere]

I believe the class will allow you to play an actual dragon.

Best case scenario imo

[DarkAmbient]

This looks significantly less shit. What wonders putting some clothes on can do for a horrible body.

The legs look ridiculous. If these abominations are actually in the game I will 100% not be playing one.

[Das Thora]

Who’s a Blizzard employee??

Oh, I am. Sorry.

[flippingchicken]

I believe the class will allow you to play an actual dragon.

I don't think my hopium reserves can stretch that far. The first leaks of the Drac'thyr are of the character creation screen; why would they give us a new humanoid dragon race that can change between forms, as well as a pure true dragon class that does essentially the same thing?

[Chickat]

My god. If these talents are real, I shit you not this is one of the things I've wanted for so long.

I main a druid, but... If I can build my Warlock to focus on a single pet? A Demo Warlock that buffs the Succubus exclusively? Or the Imp? My god

Even if it's not viable for end game? Imagine if we have 10 specs they can be saved. You could have the 2 specs you actually do play with a raid, dungeon, and pvp build and still have a few left for experimentation

[Chain Chungus]

This looks significantly less shit. What wonders putting some clothes on can do for a horrible body.

Definitely! I also think the pose is better here too. Looks a lot more vicious this way.

[Super Dickmann]

The legs look ridiculous. If these abominations are actually in the game I will 100% not be playing one.

Oh, it's still crap, but it's more in the diaper gnome or vulpera tier of crap than the existential horror of the naked model.

[Rhlor]

Any update since those talent tree & dragon race “work in progress” screenshots?

https://m.imgur.com/a/m3vNoco
Female model?

[Usagi Senshi]

Come on, Blizzard, this is what I want my hunter to look like:

[Ilir]

Folks were probably expecting



or



or



Not whatever that long-necked, big winged, bow legged monstrosity is.

- - - Updated - - -



The leaks we were waiting for have finally arrived.

Those aren't remotely close to a dragonoid race. And they don't look better at all lmao.

[ercarp]

Embed

Thanks, I hate it.

I really hope this isn't the real logo, but the odds aren't in my favor there I guess...

[Rhlor]

Not really "A lot" on my end, but our community sure does love supporting artists!

I actually haven't hated any of the dragon race "leaks" seen here so far :O

For me look nice
https://m.imgur.com/a/m3vNoco

[KainneAbsolute]

Come on, Blizzard, this is what I want my hunter to look like:

This is the way.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I couldn't sleep, so I'm back up—this is interesting. So, it does seem like I'm going to have to eat crow, as I suspected, over my earlier statements about the Drakthyr. Now, this is the interesting bit—that armor appears very unique. Aside from reminding me of the way the Arakkoa's armor was designed in WoD, suggesting androgyny, I am also noticing that the style of the race's model almost appears more like those of complex NPC races like the Mantid, Arakkoa, or Legion Nightborne. When I say this, I mean races which have models with attachable armor meshes and various textures. This also explains my earlier issue with the wings—I think it may be that the wings are meant to be hidden under armor and the naked model is not actually meant to be seen at all.

This is interesting. It reminds me a bit of Vulpera during BfA. If I recall correctly, their model was initially made as a complex NPC model, but came with a player model that was later used for the playable Vulpera.

This could just be heritage armor, but it looks more complex. I may be wrong about this, as I was wrong about this race existing in the first place, but I do wonder if this is an NPC-specific model.

Alternatively, if this is the model we'll get for playable Drakthyr, I do wonder if this is actually the Drakthyr at all. I recall one of the two leakers suggested that the Evokers would actually be able to turn into humanoid dragons who were "more humanoid than dragon" (paraphrasing, but something to that effect). If this is the case, then what if the reason that the customization options were cut off was because this was inserted into the racial screen imperfectly? It could be a work-in-progress for the Evoker transformation. However, this seems very unorthodox and unlikely, so I'm going to write it off for the time being. This would also be odd because it would mean that there would now be two classes that use model with the same skeleton for their metamorphosis abilities, which is strange and hard to picture as compatible.

One other thing that interests me is that this Drakthyr also has a different scale pattern on his legs. Instead of patches of brown scales, he has lines of black scales. This is interesting and does actually lend merit towards that counterargument someone brought up against me that they could actually be a very early model we saw. However, this just makes things more confusing—where the hell did whatshisface get the model? It seems very odd that a relative nobody with no preestablished connection to Blizzard would be able to procure this extremely early model to show us, much less that he would then proceed to wait for it less than a day before the reveal. Why is this the decision he made? I can't make sense of it.

I have seen people asking about the zone in the background—I think whether or not it is one that exists or not could be quickly discerned just by finding that brazier model in the background. If it is a model that doesn't exist yet, we can be pretty damn well certain that this really is a new zone, possibly a trailer clip. If I were to assume that isn't a new model, the shape of the flames makes me think of MoP. Curiously, if it is a new model, it seems like there is an Azerite component to it (notice the material that starts gold at the base and moves upwards to become blue, just like Azerite).

One other explanation for the armor is that this could be a boss—it would explain the convolution of the armor and why it doesn't look like anything we've seen before. Alternatively, traditional armor only appears on the transformed model. This is very strange and shocking to me.

If I were to push forward my personal theory on why these things look and transform like they do, I actually do wonder if it's the inverse of what some people suspect—that is, as opposed to just reflecting Dragons by disguising themselves as mortals, they're mortals ascending into Dragons. We've seen this happen with the Nether Drakonids of the Dragonmaw. Perhaps these are playable races who actually ascend into Dragons as a result of some kind of ritual?

This also makes me wonder exactly how Evoker would fit in to all this. What does an Evoker do? The two leakers contradicted one another, and I don't think either can be trusted in their entirety because I think neither actually has the whole story. Only one has ever given us a very secondhand and distorted account of a trailer I do very much think they saw, whereas another has never indicated any connection to Blizzard before. I have no clue who is leaking these, but I do almost wonder if the two leakers have the same source.

I'm very curious now.

[Ferlion]

Even if it's not viable for end game? Imagine if we have 10 specs they can be saved. You could have the 2 specs you actually do play with a raid, dungeon, and pvp build and still have a few left for experimentation

As a serious answer that moves away from raid groups...

Were I Blizzard, especially with DPS classes, I'd take the approach of designing these talents with built in auras that could be adjusted. That is how Blizzard has been addressing DPS issues recently, and if I were to design a new talent system from scratch, I would make it's adjustments be as modular as possible to address any large discrepancies.

Now, if Blizzard actually does this or not? Who knows.