Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nymrohd]

Eh, they could retexutr everything, add new trees, buildings, grass and doodads with the same mountain shape and it would look MoP level visually. MoP still looks rather good, so I'm fine with that.

Nah, MoP already had far better treatment of Mountains. The way zones are divided with mountains is probably the worst part of vanilla visually, especially from flat. It's really like someone playing with a basic elevation tool in a map builder (well probably that's exactly what it is)

[Chickat]

Ignoring archaeology in an expansion about dragons and ancient watchers/titans/beings etc. is downright criminal.

Yeah, we need to really push hard for them to reconsider. They are even revamping professions. Its terrible that they arent updating it. If they want to keep it the same for now they need to at least add the Legion version.

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We did not really get any detail on what actually is in the expansion. I doubt we'd have Reliquary and Explorer's League as the starting point for each faction and NOT have archeology.

They confirmed in an interview that its not in the expansion.

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Good question. I feel like we have everything. BfA had quillboar, yeti I think, Naga, and critters. We have plenty of new undead models from SL and demon models from Legion. Dragonflight will have gorlocks, furbolgs, gnolls and centaurs.

Doing a revamps will be piss easy at this rate.

Yep. IM even willing to not get any new zones. Just do 11.0 as new Azeroth with endgame in most new zones. MoP level visuals for the zones similar to arathi and darkshore, and 1 new feature. Obviously player housing.

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Also based on the interviews I guess this is gonna be another case where at least on launch the max level exclusive zones are subzones of the 4. Even more so since they stated that as we upgrade our dragonriding we will be able to access new areas. I mean depending how they pull off the max level subzones. But a max level exclusive zone is a safe bet and weird not to do it. I guess BFA didn't have one (except revamps until 8.2). We might have the badlands be revamped with the uldaman dungeon tho.

But yeah, I really hope they aren't overhyping the huge zones in size. Like it would be cool if we got the 4 zones together to be the size between mop (7 zones on main continent without surrounding islands for patches) and wod at least (again 7 zones including tanaan since it is on the main landmass).
Having a single zone be almost 2x a mop or draenor zone could be cool. And it kinda makes sense what they were saying about it needing to be bigger as it is the homeland of dragons.

Still we have barely touched the surface I believe of what will be populating those zones, at most we saw half a dozen of the friendlies/enemies

MoP zones were kinda small though. I think we are looking at 4 zones the size of the biggest zones in WoW. Its claimed to be the biggest continent in years, so its probably close to as big as Draenor was. Draenor for reference was almost 50% bigger than MoP. MoP and Broken Isles were about the same size.

[Sondrelk]

TBC: Karazhan, Gruul, Maghteridon
WotLK: Eye (Malygos), Naxxramas, Obsidian Lair
Cataclysm: Blackwing Lair, Bastion, (Throne?)
MoP: Mogushan, Heart of Fear, (timegated terrace)

These come to my mind. Only WoD started the (bad) trend of just having one raid at launch. It sucks to this day.

Did all of those open right at the beginning though? Or were they staggered?

The second raid tends to come out close to the first one, SL not included, so I suppose it becomes a bit of a nuanced question at that point.

[Chickat]

Yeah, I went on about that in a post I did before reading this, but if they are huge zones and one of the biggest continents (top 4) then the size of each zone could potentially be equal to 2x a mop or wod zone

To be fair, WoD zones are as big as tbc zones. Tbc zones are some of the biggest they have added. We are likely looking at 4 zones each BIGGER than the Jade forest. JF was massive btw. Maybe the biggest zone they ever did besides Vashjir?

[Nyel]

Legion did add a mini raid in ToV between EN and NH and it was worth doing for the mogs alone.

Wasn't it part of 7.1? That's why I didn't counted it, because it wasn't available with 7.0 / at launch.

[Chickat]

But Alexstraza needs some pleasure since she is without consort, why else would we go there?

But yeah, seeing how they are revamping Uldaman it would make sense. Is the revamped uldaman going to just be a prepatch dungeon or also on launch I wonder. The website hints also at a dungeon in a new wing of Uldaman so are we gonna have 2 uldaman dungeons?

They mentioned that It is both a prepatch and max level dungeon in DF. Kinda like Upper Blackrock Spire in WoD. It was added in the WoD prepatch for MoP level chars.

[Nymrohd]

Wasn't it part of 7.1? That's why I didn't counted it, because it wasn't available with 7.0 / at launch.

They considered it the same tier. Mogu'shan was also released earlier than the rest (And was a different ilvl and had no tier).

[Chickat]

Aren't Darkfallen villains again in 9.2.5? I remember reading that darkfallen prince is leading the scourge attack on silvermoon. That's not really a good introduction for an allied race.

I thought Darkfallen were just nathanos looking undead? Well preserved Elven or human looking pale skinned red eyes typically as Dark Rangers.

[Shadochi]

I find it weird how people mention that humanoid dragons are bad, and then modify them as "fixed" to making them more humanoid...

Like why have all that focus on the neck? Sure it looks better but primarily because we are used to those proportions in WoW races, but dragons have long necks and it makes perfect sense. The long necks should be kept.

Time for a /s

Add cash shop neck customization and if you select the longest neck you get a portable AH.

[Chickat]

Hopefully the zone buffs are things like updrafts for your Dragonriding, or fun minigames like the covenant stuff.

You just know there are going to be gliding and racing world quests for end game. The Kirintor/tortollan "fun" quests of end game.

[ercarp]

I find it weird how people mention that humanoid dragons are bad, and then modify them as "fixed" to making them more humanoid...

Like why have all that focus on the neck? Sure it looks better but primarily because we are used to those proportions in WoW races, but dragons have long necks and it makes perfect sense. The long necks should be kept.

Heavily disagree. The long necks make the Dracthyr look too much like snakes rather than dragons.

[Nymrohd]

I find it weird how people mention that humanoid dragons are bad, and then modify them as "fixed" to making them more humanoid...

Like why have all that focus on the neck? Sure it looks better but primarily because we are used to those proportions in WoW races, but dragons have long necks and it makes perfect sense. The long necks should be kept.

Time for a /s

Add cash shop neck customization and if you select the longest neck you get a portable AH.

Eh these are not dragons. These are draconic humanoids. Let's not call them dragons.

[Sondrelk]

You just know there are going to be gliding and racing world quests for end game. The Kirintor/tortollan "fun" quests of end game.

If we get updrafts then my dream would be an achievement or similar that has you weave a specific path through all the zones, starting from the lowest one all the way to the peak.
Just really make flying something that feels challenging to do perfectly, not something that is given to you because actually needing to learn how to navigate a zone is boring.

[Raetary]

Did we? Not in game. Is there some gossip text with Nozdormu taking it from Thrall and then taking it back in time?.

I'm pretty sure Nozdormu mentions it at the end of DS.
That they returned it back to the point in time where it belongs.

[Teriz]

I saw in the interviews that they said at least two times, two different people, that the Evoker will have the power of the 5 dragonflights, but then they only talk specifically about the blue, red, green and bronze (first two for the dps spec and the second two for the healing spec). Did they talk about the black flight power anywhere? Or is there any chance those would be unlocked later as a third spec? I don't play tanks at all, but feel bad for them getting put aside...

One of the abilities shown in the deep dive with Ion was the Dracthyr performing Deathwing’s Cataclysm ability from HotS. So yeah, Black Dragonflight abilities are in there. I could imagine them utilizing some of Deathwing HotS’ utility and self healing abilities.

[Zulggun]

I thought Darkfallen were just nathanos looking undead? Well preserved Elven or human looking pale skinned red eyes typically as Dark Rangers.

Oh I checked and you are probably right. I thought darkfallen is just another name for Sanlayn. But I guess darkfallen is broader term that also includes undead elves like dark rangers? I dunno really.

[ercarp]

One of the abilities shown in the deep dive with Ion was the Dracthyr performing Deathwing’s Cataclysm ability from HotS. So yeah, Black Dragonflight abilities are in there. I could imagine them utilizing some of Deathwing’s utility and self healing abilities.

Btw it felt like they actually had a lot of abilities similar to what your class concept proposed. Like the Wing Buffet thing for example. Kudos to you for that.

[Chickat]

Will it be better than a dedicated endgame zone though? That's my main take. And right now - based on previous experiences - I have to say: no. It could be. But for that the zones need to be massive and with lots of stuff to do.

I mean Ogrila and Skettis worked in TBC quite well, but that's pretty far back. I don't have a good recent example where this concept worked, that's why I'm hesitant.

MoP is the most recent example of it working.

[Nyel]

Did all of those open right at the beginning though? Or were they staggered?

The second raid tends to come out close to the first one, SL not included, so I suppose it becomes a bit of a nuanced question at that point.

They were all available at launch, at least the ones in TBC, WotLK and Cataclysm. I'm not 100% sure about MoP.

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MoP is the most recent example of it working.

That's still 10 years ago. I'm not against it, I just have my concerns after BfA (no endgame zone) and Shadowlands (terrible endgame zone). I just don't understand why they scrapped the idea behind Suramar for later expansions.

[therumblings]

I am absolutely disappointed by the lack of pre-order tho.

Lack of pre-order makes me think it's not coming out for quite some time, Blizzard would love to get all those same day pre-orders people always regret lol.