Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Cosmic Janitor]

Not overall, but possibly in Shadowlands content. At the very least, they'll need something for the pieces of Shadowlands which rely on those spells like the Soulshape piece in Ardenweald. They may not have the class-specific spells for Shadowlands post 10.0, but if they do it's not super hard to see how a new class setup could be done.

I just don't see us keeping those class specific abilities. The covenant ones might stay because they are part of some quest contextual things and related to a bunch of items, but will be severely limited to shadowlands or maybe even just the covenant zones they are from. But the class stuff will either be made into a select few talents, maybe baseline if some people are lucky, but I think they went deliberately with completely unrelated animations that they can get rid of them as easily as possible. I mean many of them would even need to be redesigned to fit the class' toolkit in the first place; necrolord paladin seems awfully weird for example. Either way, they aren't limiting the creation of a new class at all, even if a new class didn't have them, so what, they will spend 2 days at most in SL, current players had to be there for 2 years+.

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As for next week, we are currently still missing 2 sigils, right? Will they cram both the necro and venthyr one into one questline? Were they formed off screen? The primus mentions that the covenants will bear them to him to chase Zovaal, so by that they either plan the most disgusting cliffhanger in recent times or they wrap up the whole thing and somehow shoehorn in some narrative finale with Sylvanas.

[Nyel]

Yeah, most Covenant class spells absolutely do not fit the class fantasy at all.

Sure, there are outliers like Divine Toll for Paladins or Convoke for Druids where Covenant and class fantasy directly match, but stuff like Necrolord Druid, Kyrian Death Knight or Nightfae Warlock is just too weird to ever become baseline or a talent.

If they go the lazy approach of the last expansions, they will just pick the most used / liked Conduits and skills whatsoever and maybe turn them into a shadow of their former self as a new talent.

[AngerFork]

I just don't see us keeping those class specific abilities. The covenant ones might stay because they are part of some quest contextual things and related to a bunch of items, but will be severely limited to shadowlands or maybe even just the covenant zones they are from. But the class stuff will either be made into a select few talents, maybe baseline if some people are lucky, but I think they went deliberately with completely unrelated animations that they can get rid of them as easily as possible. I mean many of them would even need to be redesigned to fit the class' toolkit in the first place; necrolord paladin seems awfully weird for example. Either way, they aren't limiting the creation of a new class at all, even if a new class didn't have them, so what, they will spend 2 days at most in SL, current players had to be there for 2 years+.

I feel the real answer here will come down to which if any they want to make future talents. Most of the spells are either too powerful (Convoke) or don't fit the class theme at all (Adaptive Swarm), so there's no good reason to keep them afterwards as talents or anything else. If Blizz opts to keep none of those spells out of Shadowlands, I could see Blizz making them only work in the Shadowlands and nowhere else.

Overall, I don't disagree that we should & probably will lose the class abilities post Shadowlands. However, I would have also thought they would've made the Azerite neck spells not work post BfA, yet those spells still work.

As for next week, we are currently still missing 2 sigils, right? Will they cram both the necro and venthyr one into one questline? Were they formed off screen? The primus mentions that the covenants will bear them to him to chase Zovaal, so by that they either plan the most disgusting cliffhanger in recent times or they wrap up the whole thing and somehow shoehorn in some narrative finale with Sylvanas.

Venthyr is handled during their questline, but the quest where you see it happen is only available to Venthyr players. The Necrolord ones don't fully state as much, but I feel it can more or less be assumed that the Primus rebuilds it off camera given that most Necrolord issues are resolved atm.

[Revamp Man]

I said this before: they’ll likely combine these two themes.

im just hoping its not where one is just a patch
needing the dragon isles to gain a weapon of immense titanic power to fight off an incoming void lord and the new void flight though....yes

anyone ever figure out what happened to deathwing's soul??

[Cosmic Janitor]

Overall, I don't disagree that we should & probably will lose the class abilities post Shadowlands. However, I would have also thought they would've made the Azerite neck spells not work post BfA, yet those spells still work.

Venthyr is handled during their questline, but the quest where you see it happen is only available to Venthyr players. The Necrolord ones don't fully state as much, but I feel it can more or less be assumed that the Primus rebuilds it off camera given that most Necrolord issues are resolved atm.

I think they kinda had to keep the neclace around because they made unique time-limited (fuck 'em for that) collectable spell animations for them to generate FOMO, and that only works if you somewhat promise that people actually get to keep them one way or another. They were also for the most part completely divoced from the class with the exception of 1 specific essence and half of them stopped working properly as soon as the prepatch for SL hit because abilities got renamed etc. Compared to artefact weapons that made them low to non-existent maintenance. The covenant class skills on the other hand would be relatively high maintenance, even if it was just for timewalking; and Blizzard hates that.

As for the sigils, good to know. I didn't to venthyr yet, but I did necrolord and saw that they only named a new margrave,why not 2 though ..? How was Vashj not worthy of promotion? I guess the house of constructs is also missing a leader. Kinda lame that they showed this off in great detail for night fae and even greater detail for kyrian, but couldn't be arsed for venthyr.. I guess if anyone knows how to froge a sigil it's going to be the primus, so that was never in question tbh. But it bears repeating, the necrolrds are the ones who are pretty much still in shambles compared to the other covenants.

That still leaves us with how we will get a sigil that represents the maw. Given the raid it seemed kinda like a big deal.. it's also the only one that was 3D instead of just a flat floaty neon sign.

[Dracullus]

I'm not even doing any max level stuff this week, XP from timewalking looks like someone add some 0 by mistake.

I said this before: they’ll likely combine these two themes.

I think it will be Void vs. Light and we/Azeroth sandwiched in between But if it will be single threat, I would bet on Light. There are simply more hints for that in SL (imo to balance stuff, Void is more established threat).

[Pheraz]

I fear the next week we'll see an in-game cinematic with all covenants united in a room with Sylvanas and accusing her for "her crimes"...
Then there is an a**pull to "oh Sylvanas you were right?!? And thanks for shooting that arrow btw" and she'll get full high elf reuniting with her sisters to create a new high elve era.

[Nyel]

I fear the next week we'll see an in-game cinematic with all covenants united in a room with Sylvanas and accusing her for "her crimes"...
Then there is an a**pull to "oh Sylvanas you were right?!? And thanks for shooting that arrow btw" and she'll get full high elf reuniting with her sisters to create a new high elve era.

Or just wait until she gets rescued by a (Bronze) Dragon and teleported to the Dragon Isles... to find a relic that can stop the Jailer. He he.

[Dracullus]

I fear the next week we'll see an in-game cinematic with all covenants united in a room with Sylvanas and accusing her for "her crimes"...
Then there is an a**pull to "oh Sylvanas you were right?!? And thanks for shooting that arrow btw" and she'll get full high elf reuniting with her sisters to create a new high elve era.

"Thanks for all info Sylvanas, I hope you will have fun in Revendreth" proceed to chop her head off

We all can dream, right?

[Xorzor]

Or just wait until she gets rescued by a (Bronze) Dragon and teleported to the Dragon Isles... to find a relic that can stop the Jailer. He he.

That idea sounds like a fascinating twist.

Or the dragon is Murozond in disguise, and he's only helping us to further his own malevolent plan; not to rule reality, but to end it entirely.

[huth]

That idea sounds like a fascinating twist.

Or the dragon is Murozond in disguise, and he's only helping us to further his own malevolent plan; not to rule reality, but to end it entirely.

That would at least make sense. He has to start his plans at some point since we already ended them.

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9.1.5 then will be finding soul shards of many who were broken by Frostmourne, Arthas' soul itself being one of them.

Did you forget this week? We were in that room and only took Uther's.

[Raetary]

I'd be surprised if Arthas came into it during next week's questline. If anything, I could see him in a 9.1.5 or 9.2 quest chain where we have to save other soul fragments & his turns out to be one of them, similar to what we had with Uther this week

If they really wanted to include the other Frostmourne fragments into the story, they would've done so this week.
As we JUST entered the exact place those souls were held, and we left them all there (for some reason) and just took Uthers with us.

[Sondrelk]

Hopefully next week will clarify whether we are "done" in the Maw. That alone should be interesting for the story forwards. Has the Jailer abandoned the Maw, or does he still have direct control over it, or are there even lieutenants that are commanding his armies for him.

For Arthas I guess a big question now would be whether the soul share the Jailer used IS Arthas, whether it's just a part or even if the rest of Arthas is jailed somewhere else.
Assuming Arthas is trapped in Kingsmourne I predict a storyline where we have to venture into the sword somehow to defeat whatever chains Anduin, and possibly even Arthas. Most likely in the form of a raid mechanic.

[Xorzor]

That would at least make sense. He has to start his plans at some point since we already ended them.

I had a thought on this:

• What we fought in The End Time dungeon was not Murozond himself, but a "temporal echo" from an unknown point in the timeline. A diversionary tactic to make us think he'd been beaten. If this was the case, he would've fooled even Nozdormu. This could also mean that Murozond was protected from the diminishing of the Aspects' powers after Deathwing was slain.
• Murozond could also exist concurrently in two different points: at The End Time dungeon, and at his currently-unknown location. With his power split (perhaps by necessity of needing to be in two places at once), that could explain why he was "weak" in the aforementioned dungeon.

I haven't thought out the entirety of a Time-themed expansion with Murozond as the antagonist. Some points though:

• Zovaal wants to rule reality. Murozond wants to destroy it all. He'd rather not exist than face his fate.
• The Infinite Dragonflight would be assaulting many locations across Azeroth, and players would be fighting back ala Legion-style assaults.
• These assaults would not only feature Infinite Dragonflight mobs (with updated models too), but also time-variants of familiar faces.
• The Caverns of Time would be a key location in the expansion, and we may see the Chronal Spire as well.
• In one big patch, we would visit an alternate Azeroth where many things are different. Most noticeable of all is that the super-continent of Kalimdor would be intact.
• When we take the fight to Murozond directly, we may have help from others we have assisted in the past; Outland, AU Draenor, the Shadowlands, and so on. Think of it as "calling in a lot of favours".
• Murozond may have created a predestination paradox; in trying to avert his fate, he will actually cause it. So even though we will win in the end of this would-be expansion, he may escape and try to screw us over in the past, hence our adventure into The End Time dungeon. But we all know how that turns out!

It would be an interesting theme for an expansion, but it would also have to be done right. WoD used time as a theme, but it wasn't well received. On that: if we ever go back to AU Draenor (perhaps to fight Yrel on her home turf in a Shattrath raid?), I'd like to see the sites of the Alliance and Horde garrisons be smoking ruins. Call it a nod to the disdain most of the playerbase had for them.

Assuming Arthas is trapped in Kingsmourne I predict a storyline where we have to venture into the sword somehow to defeat whatever chains Anduin, and possibly even Arthas. Most likely in the form of a raid mechanic.

That sounds cool. Like a Dreamwalker/Sethraliss type fight?

[Tiradon]

Hopefully next week will clarify whether we are "done" in the Maw. That alone should be interesting for the story forwards. Has the Jailer abandoned the Maw, or does he still have direct control over it, or are there even lieutenants that are commanding his armies for him.

For Arthas I guess a big question now would be whether the soul share the Jailer used IS Arthas, whether it's just a part or even if the rest of Arthas is jailed somewhere else.
Assuming Arthas is trapped in Kingsmourne I predict a storyline where we have to venture into the sword somehow to defeat whatever chains Anduin, and possibly even Arthas. Most likely in the form of a raid mechanic.

Aren't we missing 2 chapters till the end of story? I was really expecting them to announce something regarding 9.2 on Gamescom....

[Raetary]

Aren't we missing 2 chapters till the end of story? I was really expecting them to announce something regarding 9.2 on Gamescom....

Only the last chapter is missing, which we get next week.

As for gamescom, Blizzard is not on any official note regarding participators and at this point they are very much not attending.

[Sondrelk]

Aren't we missing 2 chapters till the end of story? I was really expecting them to announce something regarding 9.2 on Gamescom....

There is only one more covenant questline left. In total there were 6, one that freed the Primus, then one for each covenant, and now the final one that was not publicly tested.
We know from datamining that there is an in-game cutscene in Korthia that includes Anduin in some fashion, so we will only have to wait and see.

[Dracullus]

There is only one more covenant questline left. In total there were 6, one that freed the Primus, then one for each covenant, and now the final one that was not publicly tested.
We know from datamining that there is an in-game cutscene in Korthia that includes Anduin in some fashion, so we will only have to wait and see.

Also Necrolord didn't recreated their sigil in 'their' questline. Don't know about Kyrian, will try it today, cause sadly timewalking thing was fixed (still got 2x 50-60 in 4 hours!).

[Sondrelk]

Also Necrolord didn't recreated their sigil in 'their' questline. Don't know about Kyrian, will try it today, cause sadly timewalking thing was fixed (still got 2x 50-60 in 4 hours!).

I just reread some of the dialogue. The Primus does seem to specifically mention reforging the sigil and giving it to Draka. I guess the only difference is that unlike the other covenants we didnt physically see the sigil.

Regardless that would still likely leave Zovaal/The Arbiters sigil to be reforged, which might be part of the 9.2 questline.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I just reread some of the dialogue. The Primus does seem to specifically mention reforging the sigil and giving it to Draka. I guess the only difference is that unlike the other covenants we didnt physically see the sigil.

Regardless that would still likely leave Zovaal/The Arbiters sigil to be reforged, which might be part of the 9.2 questline.

My thoughts exactly, this might be the tricky bit and worth a questline