Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

Actually, now that I read it, only getting a maximum of three deterministic pieces of gear might be a sign that the season is more for fun instead of a "proper" season.
Still though, I am more inclined to divine the length of the season by the fact that there are rewards given for gaining Keystone rating, as well as completing all the raids with the fated affix. Maybe if there were not actually a Mythic, or even Heroic version of Raids+ I might be a bit more charitable on that front, but expecting even the average Mythic guild to clear all three raids with effectively only a third of the available time is a tough ask, even if the raids are old and they might already know the tactics.

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Its saying its shorter in the text.

So it does. Guess it's a good thing the Jellysaber is the Normal raid reward. Really couldnt care about the raid teleports anyways.

Still, even if we assume it's only a month shorter than the average season at 5 months, that still only leaves an effective month and a half for actual "progression". The highly deterministic gear should make it much easier, but still only really achievable by the best raiders.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

This confirms that season 4 won't last as long as a normal season does this increase the chances of dragonflight releasing in 2022?

Give the quote cause my brain is mush.

It’s worth noting that the systems we’ll be talking about today are designed around specific goals to fit with Season 4’s shorter runtime

Ah okay, got'cha. Thanks everyone else.

[Makorus]

This confirms that season 4 won't last as long as a normal season does this increase the chances of dragonflight releasing in 2022?

That, combined with the "most sought after" reward being able to be earned in LFR gave me a feeling it wasn't gonna be a long one.

Once again, it matches up with what Scaleface said, and to me, might actually give some credence to the expansion coming out in November.

Seems like they are starting the Alpha soon as well, because the Shadowlands Beta listing appeared in peoples Battle.Net client again.

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Actually, now that I read it, only getting a maximum of three deterministic pieces of gear might be a sign that the season is more for fun instead of a "proper" season.
Still though, I am more inclined to divine the length of the season by the fact that there are rewards given for gaining Keystone rating, as well as completing all the raids with the fated affix. Maybe if there were not actually a Mythic, or even Heroic version of Raids+ I might be a bit more charitable on that front, but expecting even the average Mythic guild to clear all three raids with effectively only a third of the available time is a tough ask, even if the raids are old and they might already know the tactics.

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So it does. Guess it's a good thing the Jellysaber is the Normal raid reward. Really couldnt care about the raid teleports anyways.

Still, even if we assume it's only a month shorter than the average season at 5 months, that still only leaves an effective month and a half for actual "progression". The highly deterministic gear should make it much easier, but still only really achievable by the best raiders.

I mean, we don't know the tuning, and the raid affix seems more like a Level 10 M+ Affix, as in, it gives you loads of bonuses as well.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Everything for that short term profit, eh?

I mean, I am not too surprised anymore. But, hey it is what it is. Hopefully they can ship it in a good state.

[Nymrohd]

By the way it was presented, you get the mount by completing all three fated raids. It doesn't specify normal so LFR should work too. Wonder if the Dinars will also be acquirable through LFR, that would give an incentive to casuals to run LFR (and would even allow people who progress in these raids a way to get boss kills they are missing because their guild hasn't gotten through them just yet.

[Makorus]

The more I think about the dinars, the more I think that 3 is too many.

Because realistically, you will get two trinkets with that + either a weapon or something like that Anduin Rings.

It's gonna be fine for that season, but I hope they tone it down a bit for the actual expansion.

[Therougetitan]

By the way it was presented, you get the mount by completing all three fated raids. It doesn't specify normal so LFR should work too. Wonder if the Dinars will also be acquirable through LFR, that would give an incentive to casuals to run LFR (and would even allow people who progress in these raids a way to get boss kills they are missing because their guild hasn't gotten through them just yet.

There is no fated LFR. Also this is incentive for casuals to do normal.

[Makorus]

There is no fated LFR. Also this is incentive for casuals to do normal.

There is Fated LFR.

[Ersula]

That, combined with the "most sought after" reward being able to be earned in LFR gave me a feeling it wasn't gonna be a long one.

Once again, it matches up with what Scaleface said, and to me, might actually give some credence to the expansion coming out in November.

That checks out. I won't exactly say Dragonflight is a "smaller" expansion but without Torghast or balancing Covenant Abilities, there's a lot less testing to do.

[wowrefugee]

Holy shit, fated LFR?

I know LFR is kind of hated, but as someone who has always pugged norm/heroic raids to varying levels of success, I'm glad to have this option.

[Sondrelk]

The more I think about the dinars, the more I think that 3 is too many.

Because realistically, you will get two trinkets with that + either a weapon or something like that Anduin Rings.

It's gonna be fine for that season, but I hope they tone it down a bit for the actual expansion.

I think 3 is just enough actually. Trinkets and weapons are the most important thing afterall. Double weapon + BiS trinnet, or BiS weapon + double BiS trinkets seems like a fair deal considering it's the last part of the expansion.

They probably could give even more of them, but I imagine that if the system is a success then they might carry it over in some form for future content, and they don't want to have to scale it way back at that point.

[Dracullus]

This confirms that season 4 won't last as long as a normal season does this increase the chances of dragonflight releasing in 2022?

It still don't make it likely, but it does increase chances for 2022 release a lot. Launch before end of Q1 2023 looks almost certain now. What worries me is that suits may push Christmas release. If they release expac too early before starting work on 10.1 we will repeat Shadowlands.

[Makorus]

That checks out. I won't exactly say Dragonflight is a "smaller" expansion but without Torghast or balancing Covenant Abilities, there's a lot less testing to do.

The fact that they said they would release the Talent Calculator before Alpha shows me that they've atleast done some kind of extensive internal testing for the talents beforehand as well.

They must have done a lot of rethinking of how they do PTRs and Alphas recently.

[Nymrohd]

There is no fated LFR. Also this is incentive for casuals to do normal.

People who don't want to PuG content ain't gonna do PuG content at this point. People can keep talking about incentives but we are decades in the game and that never changed. If anything, given S4 gives no content for players who do world content except for maybe those cypher weapons (which my alts will probably get the first day I log them in 9.2.5) having LFR fated and actually letting it be somewhat useful for progression for once is nice.

[Khaza-R]

Much appreciated, just found it browsing the main page. But isn't that just music from ... Eversong forest? It sounds very familiar. To link it with Darkfallen is a bit too much hopium for my taste. There also is this bloodelf questline in 9.2.5 and this would fit perfectly.
No, I still don't see new AR happening, sry.

Its used in a few different places but the official track name from TBC is The Sin'dorei.

This confirms that season 4 won't last as long as a normal season does this increase the chances of dragonflight releasing in 2022?

Previously I would of said no way, but with them pushing TBC out faster I now think a September Wrath Classic release is fairly possible at this point. So that leaves their Q4 without any significant launches.

[ZyntosAran]

If DF really launches this year I am f...ed. I already planned all my vacation days.

[Dracullus]

It is also pretty strange that Season 4 is tested so early during Season 3. Probably they want prepare all SL related things before they start Alpha, but if they really want launch in December 2022, it would be technically possible to make shorter Season 3 and 4.

Deadline for Mythic raid release is 14th December (I don't think Ion hates raiders THAT much to steal their Christmas), so if we add 1 week for class changes + 2 weeks of pre-patch event + 2 week launch + 1 week normal/heroic, then 1st November is deadline for pre-patch. Season 3 started 1st March, so we have 8 months. It would have to be something like 5/3 split.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

We'll see what happens, I still feel unsure about 2022 release.

It still don't make it likely, but it does increase chances for 2022 release a lot. Launch before end of Q1 2023 looks almost certain now. What worries me is that suits may push Christmas release. If they release expac too early before starting work on 10.1 we will repeat Shadowlands.

Unlikely, Blizz seems to have adapted to the current "world situation" so it shouldn't be so...well weird. Not saying it will come out in 2022, it could or it may not.

[Nymrohd]

It is also pretty strange that Season 4 is tested so early during Season 3. Probably they want prepare all SL related things before they start Alpha, but if they really want launch in December 2022, it would be technically possible to make shorter Season 3 and 4.

Deadline for Mythic raid release is 14th December (I don't think Ion hates raiders THAT much to steal their Christmas), so if we add 1 week for class changes + 2 weeks of pre-patch event + 2 week launch + 1 week normal/heroic, then 1st November is deadline for pre-patch. Season 3 started 1st March, so we have 8 months. It would have to be something like 5/3 split.

Or the expansion can release but raids can open a decent amount later. It has happened before.

[Dracullus]

Or the expansion can release but raids can open a decent amount later. It has happened before.

Not really, in WoD/Legion/BfA we had 3 weeks, in SL 2 weeks. They won't leave WoW for Christmas break with just M0 and dragon to ride.