Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Makabreska]

I don't even consider it a full class at this point, it's a mini-class.
Two spec classes are mini classes, just because they get unique customizations / race options, doesn't change the fact that these are still classes that could've easily had a third spec.

Kay. Opinion noted.

[TriHard]

Kay. Opinion noted.

Not an opinion, a fact rather.

Even you can agree that DH and Evoker could've easily had third specs that would've made sense.

[Dracullus]

I gave you one quite simple idea last week how they easily could keep progression going: you can still earn talent points at max level. It will take way more time and effort to get one, but you still can get them. So you can unlock more and more talents over time. Or you can earn things that add stacks to existing talents, e.g. giving talent A an additional stack so you can put two points into said talent. Now you work towards getting stacks for some (basic) talents and getting more skill points to unlock them. There you have an easy way to keep progression going on max level instead of earning nothing at all (besides new gear and new cosmetics). Because you can be sure that people will instantly complain about the lack of progression the minute they reach max level in Dragonflight.

What happen to this extra points when 11.0 will launch?

[Lady Atia]

Not an opinion, a fact rather.

Even you can agree that DH and Evoker could've easily had third specs that would've made sense.

Well, they could always add a range DH based upon Hearthstone and a tank Dracthyr down the line.

[Makabreska]

Not an opinion, a fact rather.

Even you can agree that DH and Evoker could've easily had third specs that would've made sense.

No, it's not a fact. There is no such thing as a "mini class" in WoW. Classes are not defined by the number of specs they have.

[Lady Atia]

Also, from the wotlk classic design:

The third and final design pillar of the Classic WoW team is: The World is the Main Character. We want you to maintain the feeling of being immersed in a living world (of Warcraft). We love your exploration and your player-driven stories and want to make sure you have a reason to visit various locations in the world over and over again. Gathering and crafting professions are important to that sense of world, and of its economy, where you are interacting with thousands of other players in a vibrant player community. This pillar means we need to preserve the world we have created from excessive changes. You should be able to collect the lost pages of the Green Hills of Stranglethorn, to rescue the town of Darkshire from Stitches, or to return to Tempest Keep and face off against Prince Kael’thas one more time (and hope for rare mount drop). You should be able to tell your personally unique stories about your exploits, even as you follow along the epic stories of Azeroth’s most famous personalities.

Didn't we find datamining strings for a living world feature for retail? Maybe they are gonna add classic EK and Kalimdor to retail during Dragonflight if they follow the same design pillar? With WotlK classic serving as the initial testbed for it - maybe with a toggle for classic and wotlk Naxx?

[Skildar]

Not an opinion, a fact rather.

Even you can agree that DH and Evoker could've easily had third specs that would've made sense.

easily? I'm expecting to hear some big ideas then

[rhorle]

This is flat out reaching. I already said I would be happy to be proven wrong and for the game to be good. Why? Because that gives people a better experience and shows Blizzard can learn from their mistakes in and before Shadowlands. I have no reason to want it to be bad.

If you have no reason to want it bad you wouldn't be predicting it to be bad. There is a disconnect with what you keep saying. There is nothing that indicate Dragonflight will be bad yet you keep giving reasons for why you think it will be bad. On some level you want it to be bad because that is what you keep saying it will be based on little to no Dragonflight details.

[Nyel]

Ion already confirmed that Dragonriding mounts will not replace classic mount collecting. We will get as much if not more mounts with Dragonflight as we got with Shadowlands, plus the drake customizations. Atleast that's the plan.

Also - did they seriously release the wrong beta today xD? Who cares for classic testing arghhh ...

How would they even release DF beta when DF alpha hasn't been updated yet?

[Lady Atia]

How would they even release DF beta when DF alpha hasn't been updated yet?

Dude. You aren't stupid and you know the meaning behind my comment. They should have released DF testing instead of the WotLK classic snorefeast "testing".

[rhorle]

they can push out the .X content patches faster, and we could always see new systems in those too.

Has that ever been the case though? Even when Blizzard mad a concious decision to increase employee number and release content faster they couldn't deliver. Could this time be different? Sure. Even when he had the "basic" patches in expansions prior to WoD things still took a while. I'm using WoD because garrisons saw expansion with the Shipyard and was a "core" featured of the expansion even if it wasn't borrowed power.

[Nyel]

What happen to this extra points when 11.0 will launch?

We keep them? They can give us as much talent points as we have talents to spend points on available. As they're going to keep the talent trees around, five points more or less do not matter when a new expansion hits.

By restricting "new" talents at the bottom you can even prevent players from filling out those bars instantly than slowly over time when you level up in the new expansion.

That's the entire point of the talent tree revamp, isn't it? Having one system they can build upon. And so we don't even lose progression we made, it transitions flawlessly into the next expansion. One of the main problems of borrowed power was that your character was reset to zero each time a new expansion hit while losing all the progress that was made and invalidating two years of "work" by just that. This shouldn't be the case in the future, should it?

[Hitei]

Also, from the wotlk classic design:



Didn't we find datamining strings for a living world feature for retail? Maybe they are gonna add classic EK and Kalimdor to retail during Dragonflight if they follow the same design pillar? With WotlK classic serving as the initial testbed for it - maybe with a toggle for classic and wotlk Naxx?

I really, really doubt it. What would even be the point? "No one" wants to level through wildly inefficient, poorly spaced out quests that take forever and for the people who are nostalgic and want to see those quests or un-cataclysm'd zones, there are three different classic server options they've been able to go do that on for years now.

This also ignores that the living world entries weren't just "living world" they referenced things that have nothing to do with classic continents (proximity, weather and time of day).

It is probably related to the stuff they've been a bit cryptic about regarding world content redesign. They've said a lot of stuff about how there's a bunch more to find and solve and stuff in the open world, they probably added a bunch of new functions related to that. Rares that only spawn in certain weather, doors or puzzles that only open at certain times of the day, etc.

[Marlamin]

Didn't we find datamining strings for a living world feature for retail? Maybe they are gonna add classic EK and Kalimdor to retail during Dragonflight if they follow the same design pillar? With WotlK classic serving as the initial testbed for it - maybe with a toggle for classic and wotlk Naxx?

Animation names are shared between all branches of WoW, Living World could just as well end up being a Classic thing (although I personally feel that's unlikely). On that note, there's also some new skinning specific animation names that showed up that haven't had a use either yet.

[Nyel]

No, it's not a fact. There is no such thing as a "mini class" in WoW. Classes are not defined by the number of specs they have.

While that is true (or would Druids be the only maxi (?) class), you can definitely see that there was put way less effort into DH and Evoker than in DK or Monk.

[rhorle]

I didn't count Garrisons because they're trivial, but if you're counting Dragonriding as "content", so can we count Garrisons.

Garrisons were not trival to WoD. Majority of non-instanced content revolved around garrisons and Blizzard even tried to expand on it with Shipyards by giving us a "mini-garrison" with new resources and missions. Dragon Riding hasn't been shown to be anywhere near as expansive as Garrisons were.

[Hitei]

Animation names are shared between all branches of WoW, Living World could just as well end up being a Classic thing (although I personally feel that's unlikely). On that note, there's also some new skinning specific animation names that showed up that haven't had a use either yet.

Seems to me the basic assumption here would be that they go with the new profession items.

Supposedly you auto-switch (visually) into the gear when you are doing the profession, so skinning would probably involve switching to a skinning knife and so need a new animation that isn't just the dumb *rub hands together over body* thing.

[Lady Atia]

Seems to me the basic assumption here would be that they go with the new profession items.

Supposedly you auto-switch (visually) into the gear when you are doing the profession, so skinning would probably involve switching to a skinning knife and so need a new animation that isn't just the dumb *rub hands together over body* thing.

Wait, you guys aren't using the *rub hands together over body* thing to cook in real life?

[rhorle]

Okay, how does a new class help players have fun when there is zero max level progression?

It becomes alt friendly. The issue that arose with expansive end-game systems is that you had to do it on all alts as well. With out those things there then playing multiple alts increases in viability. So when you finish on your main you can have fun with a new class and play style. That always exist in any expansion new classes or races are added but obviously being more alt friendly changes things up.

Dragonflight has indicated that professions will offer some content in the form of quests, gear, and what not. Is it likely to be anything robust? Nope. But it is silly to say it isn't content.

- - - Updated - - -

What Blizzard does affects the entire industry

It hasn't really so far or every other game would be crap, right? People are dunking on Blizzard because it has become the fashionable thing to do. More often then not the criticism exists just to be negative. It is also strange that you think Microsoft would be any different or drastically change things up. They haven't in the past with acquisitions nor has Microsoft ever been some benevolent company.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I suppose Drac'thyr could have a third spec but.... can we stop with this insistence that its the worst thing ever or a "Mini" class. Just made up jargon to hate on it. Personally I would add a new tank spec cause why not, but they didn't but thats not the end of the world.