Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Darkarath]

Yup. Its kinda funny.

Though a broken clock is right twice a day so eventually it may happen.

That's my hope

[Khaza-R]

Well, since we are talking (yet again) about our dreamed world revamp... I have not been following 9.2.5 a lot, but it is my understanding that the Forsaken had recovered the Undercity or at least Tirisfal Glades? And that Night Elves have now an empowered Tear of Elune to make a new tree?

Essentially, yes. Forsaken take back Tirisfal and surface of the ruins of Lordaeron. Undercity itself is still too blighted. Night Elves get the seed of a new tree. They have to take it some hidden place (Dragon Isles obviously).

Both of these stories are likely to continue in DF. Night Elves probably need to blessing of the Aspects to properly grow Teldrassil this time. Undead probably have something with burning away the last of the blight with dragonfire.

So while we will not see their new cities in Dragonflight, we know that they are coming. Plus Dragonflight is bringing up to date the last assets that are not updated yet (Tuskarr, Gnolls, and most important Dragons, and I bet that some more too).

While I'd personally love to see a revamp, I think its a jump to say that updated NPC models is an indication of a revamp. It could very well just be some internal process they have to slowly visually update old models which benefits both old and new content at the same time.

[Murlocos]

One thing that I think has contributed to the sharp decline in the perception of the story since Legion is the tone and direction of the writing and cutscenes, not just the plot beats themselves. Blizzard has always operated on a rule of cool, epic moments and events can help mask writing that is wanting. That also makes the story easy to follow along with and it's something you can enjoy pretty mindlessly. Up through Legion, they followed this fairly well.

Starting with BfA and further into Shadowlands, I'd say the tone of the story has become pretty miserable. A lot of those epic scenes have been replaced by characters moping about melodramatically, or they do something cool that is immediately offset by villains succeeding anyways. How many cutscenes over the past two expansions end with a dramatic sting of the characters looking shocked/sad, sometimes accompanied by a quiet, hopeful one-liner? I believe Teldrassil has been received with such negative exhaustion compared to other genocides and downer moments in the story because it has been constantly hammered upon as a bleak, hopeless tragedy with nothing to offset that negativity

Ultimately it's just part of the overall problem, which is the writers focusing far too much on buildup, teasing and mystery boxes, then the payoff for these drawn-out storylines being either minor, quickly subverted, or nonexistent. The carrot on a stick has been waved too many times. I think they're aware of the tonal problem going into Dragonflight, but as Blizzard tends to overly course correct on just about everything, I fear they'll put out a story that feels saccharine and toothless.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

People only remember the Artifacts from like 7.2 when Artifact Knowledge was just a thing that happened automatically and they showered you in AP where it was pretty much a cakewalk to reach the first level of Concordance.

Launch Artifacts were a fucking nightmare. Artifact Knowledge was just bafflingly stupid implemented where if you didn't cap day 1 and you didn't start a new research as soon as the old one finished, you were permanently behind.

Ahh yes concordance that was something and sorta draining at the end of Legion. Also people need to chill about the story being depressing, its not THAT depressing.

The fact that even you admit that it's depressing, just shows how depressing it is.

Compared to how people view it here? No not even close.

[Raetary]

its not THAT depressing.

The fact that even you admit that it's depressing, just shows how depressing it is.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I mean, there's always chance of a crumb of Allied Race Tuskarr to cheer us up.

Right?

[Nyel]

Check the Dragonflight trailer. The Dragon Isles are thematically very similar to various things from Northrend. There's new Tuskarr and Titan assets that can be seen as well as a zone that's, both visually and according to interviews, basically Grizzly Hills 2. That's Wintergrasp, part of Ulduar, part of Storm Peaks, the Tuskarr villages in Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills covered. Obviously it won't cover it all 1:1, but I'd say even if it does it partially, it is an indicator of a "two birds with one stone" situation possibly happening here.



Basically this.

Ah okay, so this is solely based on observations from the trailer, I thought there is datamining or some hidden stuff (that made it into 9.2.5 PTR or whatever) to back this up.

Thanks for clarification.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean, there's always chance of a crumb of Allied Race Tuskarr to cheer us up.

Right?

After the very lukewarm reception of playable of Pandaren I'm pretty sure they wouldn't put work into this.

[Marlamin]

Ah okay, so this is solely based on observations from the trailer, I thought there is datamining or some hidden stuff (that made it into 9.2.5 PTR or whatever) to back this up.

Thanks for clarification.

Don't need any of that when you have a functioning pair of eyes.

[Kiivar86]

At this rate I'm feeling afraid that we get only like two to three talent tree reveals a week.

Just to breadcrumb it out.

[therumblings]

At this rate I'm feeling afraid that we get only like two to three talent tree reveals a week.

Just to breadcrumb it out.

They will do more than just two a week, or else we aren't getting the alpha until mid july lol. Plus, they also have the Dracthyr blog to post. Unless they plan to post all of this while the alpha is up? Which doesn't make sense imo. Also, it took about 50 days for SL to go from encrypted alpha build to public alpha, and it seems like DF is going to take longer than that.

[Dracullus]

At this rate I'm feeling afraid that we get only like two to three talent tree reveals a week.

Just to breadcrumb it out.

Most likely it depends when Alpha will start. I think they will release all 12 at rate to fill wait time, then Evoker class/starting zone blog post on Alpha start (since it probably will be first build).

[micwini]

maybe there will be only 1 post a week but it will contain more classes? Remember that druid is a bigger one since its 4 specs.

[tumbleweed010]

maybe there will be only 1 post a week but it will contain more classes? Remember that druid is a bigger one since its 4 specs.

I'm not trying to be mean but this is 100% copium. The Resto, Balance, and the Class trees have some small changes from what was shown during the Dragonflight announcement and that was 45~ days ago. Those 2 specs and the class tree were, by all accounts, basically done, as the changes were mostly moving utility around or changing some of the ability choice talents. So, we effectively got 6 "new" talent trees and the completed Resto & Balance ones.

1 post a week, 2 classes/post is the most likely path with the last week being 3 (unless they want Evoker to be a surprise).

Most likely it depends when Alpha will start. I think they will release all 12 at rate to fill wait time, then Evoker class/starting zone blog post on Alpha start (since it probably will be first build).

This is most likely what they'll do with a mid-July Alpha.

[Luck4]

Maaan, people have been making arguments like that since FOREVER.

"Oh, 7.0 gonna be a world revamp because something happens while we are on Draenor!"

"Oh, 8.0 is gonna be a world revamp because of the sword!"

"Oh, 9.0 is gonna be a world revamp because N'zoth distracted us!"

"Oh, 10.0 is gonna be a world revamp because time works differently!"

This only shows how desired it is, just look at fake leaks, since 7.0 the fabled World Revamp is a recurring fake leak.

[Makorus]

This only shows how desired it is, just look at fake leaks, since 7.0 the fabled World Revamp is a recurring fake leak.

I mean, of course it is desired.

But people acting like "OH NO GUYS ITS DEFINITELY GONNA COME NEXT EXPANSION BECAUSE OF X" is tiresome.

[Nymrohd]

I mean, of course it is desired.

But people acting like "OH NO GUYS ITS DEFINITELY GONNA COME NEXT EXPANSION BECAUSE OF X" is tiresome.

Do you really get tired by other people's speculation/hype? Honestly the only behaviour I've seen that I'd consider tiresome is the void elf cosplayer. Not even Teriz is tiresome, just mildly annoying.

[Makorus]

Do you really get tired by other people's speculation/hype? Honestly the only behaviour I've seen that I'd consider tiresome is the void elf cosplayer. Not even Teriz is tiresome, just mildly annoying.

Well, I don't actually get tired, but it just doesn't offer any actual discussion purposes at this point.

Yeah they are setting up a new Teldrassil and a new Undercity. OK. Time has shown that does not mean anything, because that's literally what happened in BfA. But then people are gonna spend 20 pages arguing about how it's definitely a revamp. I am not saying that a revamp might not happen with 11.0, and it's probably one of my most wanted things, but going by stuff like "Oh, there's gonna be a new Teldrassil so there is definitely gonna be a revamp!" is getting nobody anywhere.

[Scaleface]

So yeah from that it feels more like "it made me think of mages due to the arcane mage ability" and less "they're stealing from arcane mages."

It was about associating "Evoker" with "Evocation" and nothing else (It was the first association for me.)

I was away for a moment, I didn't write - but I am watching all the time. All the best

[Nymrohd]

I still don't get why they didn't just call it Invoker and tie it in to Hearthstone. They've been stealing things from Hearthstone for years now and most of them have been successful.

[Nyel]

This only shows how desired it is, just look at fake leaks, since 7.0 the fabled World Revamp is a recurring fake leak.

Desired by... forum posters? Don't know if the basic player in game really cares about that.

I think the general problem is that the topic of another revamp is almost half a decade old by now and there always have been "proofs" or "evidence" that it's coming or in the work except it never came to fruition.

- - - Updated - - -

They will do more than just two a week, or else we aren't getting the alpha until mid july lol. Plus, they also have the Dracthyr blog to post. Unless they plan to post all of this while the alpha is up? Which doesn't make sense imo. Also, it took about 50 days for SL to go from encrypted alpha build to public alpha, and it seems like DF is going to take longer than that.

It's Wednesday and we haven't gotten anything this week, so more than two a week seems very unlikely. Alpha in July seems excessive as we're reaching 8 weeks since the official announcement (soon), but I don't really see it happening within the next one or two weeks, not with Diablo Immortal launch being so fresh.

As I said in another post, they always can start Alpha with just the classes they have had a blog post about and unlock the others later.