Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Baedril]

Thanks, I didn't expect to be that high up.

As a frequent lurker and occasional poster ever since I got hyped for SL again after 9.1.5, it has always felt like this thread is the same 20-30 people talking in circles whilst waiting for news to drop tbh, though it's been harder to follow in the last few days with how fast it's been moving.

Anyway, I'm curious what the consensus here is on these two topics:
1: Dracthyr, will the dragon form be able to wear armour or not at all, and it's more like moonkin form?
2: Will you be able to fight in humanoid form, and animations just temporarily make you Dracthyr like on DH and meta, or will it be more like Worgen where you are forced to be Dracthyr in combat?

[Grimbold21]

I see where Chickat is coming from, because I used to think like that, but I think FFXIV has essentially proven you correct. With FFXIV you never redo grinds or the like, because all your classes are on one character (if you're sane lol), and whilst I thought that would get boring, it really, really, really does not. It actually makes the whole thing a lot more fun/bearable. Not suggesting the same for WoW, WoW isn't built that way, but minimizing re-grinding stuff would be very smart. It doesn't actually leave you with "nothing to do", it just means you focus on more productive stuff.

I appreciate what I see as Blizzard's efforts in making a more sandbox experience, as in: here are the Dragon Isles. Go out and have fun. But it's up to Blizzard to provide the framework with which we engage in. This isn't Vanilla anymore, where player innocence and ignorance was at its expected all time high, and thus being in the world itself was an experience.

We know better now, and having to refarm reputations on 1,2, 5, 10 alts is certainly not the definition of an enjoyable sandbox experience.

[huth]

Maybe they were too hyped, and they... you know...

Hypesploded?

[therumblings]

Anyway, I'm curious what the consensus here is on these two topics:
1: Dracthyr, will the dragon form be able to wear armour or not at all, and it's more like moonkin form?
2: Will you be able to fight in humanoid form, and animations just temporarily make you Dracthyr like on DH and meta, or will it be more like Worgen where you are forced to be Dracthyr in combat?

From what I can tell, it's like a mix of worgen and moonkin form. So you can freely switch in and out of humanoid and Dragon form out of combat, but in combat you are forced into the dracthyr model, which is extremely unlikely able to wear armor.

[Raetary]

Btw, there'll be an AH in Thaldrazsus.
First expansion hub to not force you back to sw.

[huth]

From what I can tell, it's like a mix of worgen and moonkin form. So you can freely switch in and out of humanoid and Dragon form out of combat, but in combat you are forced into the dracthyr model, which is extremely unlikely able to wear armor.

And their animations appear entirely based on the draconic form, so even a DH model would leave them in that form near-constantly anyway.

[LalaGamer]

Interesting talk http s://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-suspicious-4ch-leak-from-3-days-ago-speculation925-spoilers/1223381

[Sondrelk]

From what I can tell, it's like a mix of worgen and moonkin form. So you can freely switch in and out of humanoid and Dragon form out of combat, but in combat you are forced into the dracthyr model, which is extremely unlikely able to wear armor.

If there is one thing which I think will sink the new class then it would be not being able to wear armor in the Dragon form, even if it's only a select few slots like shoulders, chests and belts.

They can make it as elaborate as they want, but nothing can quite compare to being able to make your dragon look like a hillbilly farmer, or some obscure comic book villain from the 80s.

[Super Dickmann]

Btw, there'll be an AH in Thaldrazsus.
First expansion hub to not force you back to sw.

Brutosaur owners will never recover.

[Sondrelk]

Btw, there'll be an AH in Thaldrazsus.
First expansion hub to not force you back to sw.

I really hated how there was an auction house in Boralus, it was just not for players. Even if you could teleport back to Stormwind easily, and the Brutosaur mount was available it just felt like a bit of an annoyance.

- - - Updated - - -

Brutosaur owners will never recover.

I will survive somehow. I will just have to subsist on the occasional forgotten reagent someone needs before a raid boss.

[Shadochi]

Btw, there'll be an AH in Thaldrazsus.
First expansion hub to not force you back to sw.

But what about the Ashran faction hubs :O (technically Cata hubs didnt force you to go back to SW since SW was the hub)

[Chickat]

That's the central goal of the game: player power.

And what does rep grinding have to do with "modern" WoW? If anything, endless rep farming is a relic of the past.

Besides, this would be an indirect endorsement of some possible, future Blizzard response, along the lines of: well you guys wanted systems out of the game and we did that, but we can't take everything out.

Yeah but they are making reps like covenants. They aren't gonna let you earn the transmog set for cloth leather or mail on a plate wearer.


Regardless I think there's zero chance the reps will be account anyways.

[Baedril]

If there is one thing which I think will sink the new class then it would be not being able to wear armor in the Dragon form, even if it's only a select few slots like shoulders, chests and belts.

They can make it as elaborate as they want, but nothing can quite compare to being able to make your dragon look like a hillbilly farmer, or some obscure comic book villain from the 80s.

Yeah, I'll be absolutely playing one just because new healer !! but man, if I'm not able to show off my cool PvP sets or put a stupid hat on my lizard, what's the point? If that's actually the case then I wish they'd just skipped the development time on the humanoid forms and just focused on getting gear on the dragons, having a humanoid form as a "I guess we need to have a way to show transmog" is so stupid.

[Raetary]

But what about the Ashran faction hubs :O (technically Cata hubs didnt force you to go back to SW since SW was the hub)

Oh yeah, i forgot about Ashran.

Just more proof on how forgettable that place was.

[Berkilak]

If there is one thing which I think will sink the new class then it would be not being able to wear armor in the Dragon form, even if it's only a select few slots like shoulders, chests and belts.

They can make it as elaborate as they want, but nothing can quite compare to being able to make your dragon look like a hillbilly farmer, or some obscure comic book villain from the 80s.

Indeed. If you're locked in from creation with a glorified Druid form? I will not be happy.

[Chickat]

I see where Chickat is coming from, because I used to think like that, but I think FFXIV has essentially proven you correct. With FFXIV you never redo grinds or the like, because all your classes are on one character (if you're sane lol), and whilst I thought that would get boring, it really, really, really does not. It actually makes the whole thing a lot more fun/bearable. Not suggesting the same for WoW, WoW isn't built that way, but minimizing re-grinding stuff would be very smart. It doesn't actually leave you with "nothing to do", it just means you focus on more productive stuff.

Ff14 most players have 1 character. You most definitely have to regrind stuff on alts. It's a non comparison imo.

[therumblings]

They just need to make them be able to wear armor in dragonform and I'm willing to overlook everything else right now. Maybe eventually they will give the Dracthyr more classes, but wearing armor in dragonform is really important when it goes live.

[Zulggun]

Interesting talk http s://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-suspicious-4ch-leak-from-3-days-ago-speculation925-spoilers/1223381

Tuskarr allied race here we go!

[Chickat]

I appreciate what I see as Blizzard's efforts in making a more sandbox experience, as in: here are the Dragon Isles. Go out and have fun. But it's up to Blizzard to provide the framework with which we engage in. This isn't Vanilla anymore, where player innocence and ignorance was at its expected all time high, and thus being in the world itself was an experience.

We know better now, and having to refarm reputations on 1,2, 5, 10 alts is certainly not the definition of an enjoyable sandbox experience.

All the end game world content is tied to reps. With the reps being account wide it would kill the world for alts. Alts would just instantly buy these from a rep and move on to raiding. All alts would be is raid loggers. I don't see the appeal in that.

[Berkilak]

Ff14 most players have 1 character. You most definitely have to regrind stuff on alts. It's a non comparison imo.

There's no reason necessary for an alt, though, is the greater point. In WoW, if you want to try out another class, you might need to spend weeks catching them up and getting them access to the same content your main is doing. In FFXIV? You don't need to repeat the content - in fact, you can actively gear up your "alt" class while playing on your "main" because those gear drops aren't wasted. I have switched over from DPS to a tank in competitive, raid-ready gear at a moment's notice with only a little foresight.

WoW could learn from this.

I think having systems like Cyphers and World Quests scale to the character that has made the most progress would be an easy win in the meantime.