Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Cheezits]

This 'soon no tm' just shows me that hey ran into problems and just further reinforce my doubts in a 2022 release. I mean more than two months is not even 'soon tm' territory anymore.

Considering they delayed preorders for a LONG time after that, they have locked in the date. It just took a while before they could commit.

I have a feeling this has less to do with issues with the devs, but upper management forcing them to be quiet while they market Overwatch 2 instead.

[Nymrohd]

Man, can people stop being such lousy buzzkills?

Yes, of course it's stupid to be like "Oh, today is the day" and people've been saying that for weeks, but can't people be allowed to be excited for something?

Hey I don't mind people saying that it's likely we will get something during this week. But let's not pretend any day is different than the other.

[Dracullus]

This 'soon no tm' just shows me that hey ran into problems and just further reinforce my doubts in a 2022 release. I mean more than two months is not even 'soon tm' territory anymore.

And they didn't know about this problems 2 weeks ago when they announced release window?

Even if we say that Blizzard don't give a shit and knows we will buy anyway, pushing unfinished DF doesn't even make sense from financial POV. Imagine scenario if devs say "we won't be ready for November". Now they have profits from immortal, then from Overwatch 2, Wrath could be easily pushed for Christmas (hell, maybe even spliting these releases between Q4 and Q1 would increase overall number of subs), Diablo IV is next summer or later. So only early 2023 won't have major releases and DF would fit there perfectly.

Of course there is always scenario that suits are just clueless. Anyway, we will judge ~month from now. If classes will be more or less complete + zones will release at steady pace, it's good. But it's truth it will have to be shortest Alpha/Beta cycle, we are probably just 16 or 17 weeks away from pre-patch.

[Nymrohd]

And they didn't know about this problems 2 weeks ago when they announced release window?

Even if we say that Blizzard don't give a shit and knows we will buy anyway, pushing unfinished DF doesn't even make sense from financial POV. Imagine scenario if devs say "we won't be ready for November". Now they have profits from immortal, then from Overwatch 2, Wrath could be easily pushed for Christmas (hell, maybe even spliting these releases between Q4 and Q1 would increase overall number of subs), Diablo IV is next summer or later. So only early 2023 won't have major releases and DF would fit there perfectly.

Of course there is always scenario that suits are just clueless. Anyway, we will judge ~month from now. If classes will be more or less complete + zones will release at steady pace, it's good. But it's truth it will have to be shortest Alpha/Beta cycle, we are probably just 16 or 17 weeks away from pre-patch.

I do think that a scenario where the game goes live but raids/M+ come 3-4 weeks after is not impossible. Release second week of December, open raids and M+ on second week of January. Gives them a chance to do a big balance patch as soon as they get back to work after the holidays.

[Manu9]

Honestly, personally I just want to see all the talent trees, then everything else.

[Nymrohd]

Honestly, personally I just want to see all the talent trees, then everything else.

THat's not likely at this point imo. They are probably heavily iterating on them. I think it's very likely that when we see the druid tree once Alpha goes live, it will be substantially different. You might get to see them, but they won't actually matter compared to live.

[Nyel]

I do think that a scenario where the game goes live but raids/M+ come 3-4 weeks after is not impossible. Release second week of December, open raids and M+ on second week of January. Gives them a chance to do a big balance patch as soon as they get back to work after the holidays.

Sounds pretty terrible and unlikely, especially with their recent gating of content. They basically have to unlock the entire story that is there right at launch if they don't have Mythic+ / the raid ready.

[MightyWarrior]

Today, tomorrow or the day after its likely there will be a blue post reminding everyone that dataming will begin with the launch of the Dragonflight Alpha in the upcoming days.

[Cheezits]

Sounds pretty terrible and unlikely, especially with their recent gating of content. They basically have to unlock the entire story that is there right at launch if they don't have Mythic+ / the raid ready.

No, they will gate the renown stories just like they did in Shadowlands, and just like they did with the rep storylines in BFA.

[Dracullus]

Sounds pretty terrible and unlikely, especially with their recent gating of content. They basically have to unlock the entire story that is there right at launch if they don't have Mythic+ / the raid ready.

Yep, even back in AP/grind to death world 3rd week without season was a stretch. Imo 2 weeks from SL are perfect. Launch without raiding would work only if expansion had some really big feature, something like housing (or from stuff that exist, account wide transmog tab).

And about gating, introducing ~30 minutes questline every week is good idea, adds a flavour to reset day. In whole SL it was done alright, we didn't have patches with close to 0 story after first few weeks (like 7.2, 8.2, 8.3, even Argus was done after 3rd week). Only 'bad' gating in 9.2 was catalyst, imo they should remove tier from weekly chest but introduce catalyst together with mythic raid (with 1 per week limit first ~2 months, then just remove limit, it's silly when I see "you have 17 more charges" on my alt that get tier from world content).

[Catastrophy349]

Confirmed by Towelliee, through Blizzard: All the talent trees won’t come out, necessarily, before the Alpha goes up. So, calm down about your theories.

[Nightshade711]

Confirmed by Towelliee, through Blizzard: All the talent trees won’t come out, necessarily, before the Alpha goes up. So, calm down about your theories.

This is what I expected to be honest.
Similar thing happened in WoD with the new models. They didn’t reveal all the new models before Alpha/Beta.

[Vasoka]

Alpha might be tonight. The stars are telling me so, but they might be lying...

[Makabreska]

This is what I expected to be honest.
Similar thing happened in WoD with the new models. They didn’t reveal all the new models before Alpha/Beta.

They would have to basically release a tree each two days or so to show all of them before Alpha.

[Catastrophy349]

Furthermore, Towelliee and at-least a couple other streamers, have said that Blizzard isn’t planning a blue post this time around to announce. Can literally happen at any time, any day.

[Vasoka]

Furthermore, Towelliee and at-least a couple other streamers, have said that Blizzard isn’t planning a blue post this time around to announce. Can literally happen at any time, any day.

And how trustworthy, exactly, is Towelliee?

[Berkilak]

And how trustworthy, exactly, is Towelliee?

As trustworthy as a broken clock.

[Catastrophy349]

And how trustworthy, exactly, is Towelliee?

Very trustworthy. Does he sometimes “overhype”? Absolutely. However, he’s been right about enough in the past to hold my attention.

[Raetary]

Oh great, are we gonna spend the next 10 pages arguing about Towelliee yet again?

[Vasoka]

Oh great, are we gonna spend the next 10 pages arguing about Towelliee yet again?

Who's arguing? I posed a question, but I'm getting mixed signals over here.