Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

I think in theory a carefully-crafted talent tree would make it possible for each player to choose more necromancer or more towards knight, but I doubt it'll happen, at least not currently. Personally I prefer they lean into the necromancer side, mainly because it just matches the theme better and further differentiates the spec from Frost, but also because it's cool.

Might just be me, but whenever I play Unholy I always feel the melee stuff just gets in the way of the Necromancer theme. I want to see my diseases spread like a contagion, and summon ghouls to overwhelm my enemies, not laboriously give my enemies zits that I can pop.

[Feali]

Might just be me, but whenever I play Unholy I always feel the melee stuff just gets in the way of the Necromancer theme. I want to see my diseases spread like a contagion, and summon ghouls to overwhelm my enemies, not laboriously give my enemies zits that I can pop.

Army of the Dead seriously is one of the greatest spells in the game. Need more shit like that. I want an army of ghouls, skeletons, abominations and shit. Much more like the Necromancer in Diablo or the one in the Wrath trailer.

[infinitemeridian]

Army of the Dead seriously is one of the greatest spells in the game. Need more shit like that. I want an army of ghouls, skeletons, abominations and shit. Much more like the Necromancer in Diablo or the one in the Wrath trailer.

Personally, I don't like the wound mechanic. It slows down the spec and makes it feel like I'm constantly setting up for damage, rather than doing damage. This is only further compounded in open-world content and pvp, where I find the spec cumbersome and un-intuitive. Add on Unholy being a Pet AND a dot spec just makes this worse. There are also too many cooldowns (Transformation, Soul Reaper, Army of the Dead, Apocalypse, Unholy Frenzy, Gargoyle), so when they aren't up, I feel like I'm not really doing anything, which is made worse by the fact that I need to "set up" my wounds to feel like I'm doing anything in the first place. The large number of cooldowns only exacerbates the GCD as well. The flow of gameplay seems to be too much of setting up wounds, wanting to spend them, but being interrupted by higher priority cooldowns.

The abilities and feel of the spec just feels weak, even if I'm topping meters - there's too much damage spread out, so the spec feels like "death from 1000 cuts", which seems wrong for a Death Knight. I would remove army of the dead and spread that damage into more commonly used abilities like Scourge Strike / Death Coil. Plus, the spec is slow and immobile and doesn't feel particularly tanky, especially compared to other classes like DH, monks, or warriors.

Too much of the ghoul is passive as well - it would be nice to have some sort of kill command-esque ability for the ghoul, rather than just hit a button every 40-60 seconds. The ghoul is just window-dressing at this point and doesn't feel like I'm doing anything with it. Maybe give us a KC - like ability that serves as an execute? Sense Death or something like that which makes the Pet feel impactful in some way.

Also, Unholy has really weak animations / spell effects. The fantasy is great, the spec just lacks any sort of "coolness" factor. Give me bigger and better pets, and more of them. Give Death and Decay a new animation (Why is this using the same effect as Blood?). Make scourge strike cleave the same animation that Blood has for Heartstrike cleave. Clawing shadows should release some sort purple claw from your weapon. There's a lot of potential here, and I would look at the necromancer in D3 for inspiration, but right now the only cool looking ability is Apocalypse then some random green auras from WoTLK to indicate a disease.

[Feali]

Personally, I don't like the wound mechanic. It slows down the spec and makes it feel like I'm constantly setting up for damage, rather than doing damage. This is only further compounded in open-world content and pvp, where I find the spec cumbersome and un-intuitive. Add on Unholy being a Pet AND a dot spec just makes this worse. There are also too many cooldowns (Transformation, Soul Reaper, Army of the Dead, Apocalypse, Unholy Frenzy, Gargoyle), so when they aren't up, I feel like I'm not really doing anything, which is made worse by the fact that I need to "set up" my wounds to feel like I'm doing anything in the first place. The large number of cooldowns only exacerbates the GCD as well. The flow of gameplay seems to be too much of setting up wounds, wanting to spend them, but being interrupted by higher priority cooldowns.

The abilities and feel of the spec just feels weak, even if I'm topping meters - there's too much damage spread out, so the spec feels like "death from 1000 cuts", which seems wrong for a Death Knight. I would remove army of the dead and spread that damage into more commonly used abilities like Scourge Strike / Death Coil. Plus, the spec is slow and immobile and doesn't feel particularly tanky, especially compared to other classes like DH, monks, or warriors.

Too much of the ghoul is passive as well - it would be nice to have some sort of kill command-esque ability for the ghoul, rather than just hit a button every 40-60 seconds. The ghoul is just window-dressing at this point and doesn't feel like I'm doing anything with it. Maybe give us a KC - like ability that serves as an execute? Sense Death or something like that which makes the Pet feel impactful in some way.

Also, Unholy has really weak animations / spell effects. The fantasy is great, the spec just lacks any sort of "coolness" factor. Give me bigger and better pets, and more of them. Give Death and Decay a new animation (Why is this using the same effect as Blood?). Make scourge strike cleave the same animation that Blood has for Heartstrike cleave. Clawing shadows should release some sort purple claw from your weapon. There's a lot of potential here, and I would look at the necromancer in D3 for inspiration, but right now the only cool looking ability is Apocalypse then some random green auras from WoTLK to indicate a disease.

I agree with most of your points especially when it comes to "too many cooldowns" (you're setting up for like 10 GCDs every boss fight) and the animations. God the animations are weak. They just don't have any shine or kick behind them, there's close to no difference between a normal melee hit and Scourge Strike.

I also feel like Clawing Shadows is such a misplaced talent, Sure it's nice to attack from range but except for Death Coil there's nothing else to do. Would love it if they explored that a bit more.

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Damn the Monk tree feels good. Especially the class tree. I just don't agree with the Roll placement. And it seems to be only 1 charge baseline.

[Revamp Man]

Well I'm now let down with Monks

[Feali]

Well I'm now let down with Monks

Why do you say that? Most people so far seem to love it.

[Alanar]

The talent locations of Black Arrow and Legacy of the Windrunners have been swapped.

Uhm wait what? did I miss black arrow being added or is it a typo? can't find it in the tee.

[Revamp Man]

Why do you say that? Most people so far seem to love it.

i was just hoping we would get chi explosion or controlled clones
the trees arent bad but theres some stuff i just dont like such as the night fae ability staying and jade ignition being a thing

[Raetary]

The talent locations of Black Arrow and Legacy of the Windrunners have been swapped.

Uhm wait what? did I miss black arrow being added or is it a typo? can't find it in the tee.

It's a typo, they meant Wailing Arrow.

[Alanar]

It's a typo, they meant Wailing Arrow.

Though so ye, ty.

[Valysar]

We need some flying dragons !

[KayRule]

/inv_firearm_1h_dragonraid

Interesting 1 handed gun, according to the icon filename.

[TriHard]

No, but they did add a Spell that makes it so you immediately turn into your visage form upon leaving combat.

I think they still need to change it then.

Having a button that lets you retain visage form at all times (except for the ones that require a dragon animation like deep breath) would be far better.

So say it's like some of the DH skills back in Legion, they would temporarily turn you into a demon for a few seconds and then pop you back into normal form again once the ability was over. I remember there being at least 2-3 skills that would temporarily turn you into a demon (not counting Metamorphosis)


They could do that with the Dracthyr as well, that way you can get some much needed variety in visuals when playing this class / race, on one side you can play something more akin to a dragon mage visually and while a dracthyr you get that whole dragon fantasy

[Izalla]

How about no? There is plenty to group for. DO it like WoD where the suggest it, but is still soloable for most.

Nah I'll stick with my first opinion which is that it was more memorable and fun when it required a group. And I'm someone who solo plays 99.9% of the time.

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WotLK was definitely the odd one out, but Cata had the Stormwind gates, MoP had the two giant statues, BfA had the Lordaeron gates, and Shadowlands had the giant portal to the Shadowlands.
It's not strictly speaking the old style of portal, but they all seemed to go for a generic theme of portal or gate, or at the very least some kind of entrance. MoP was definitely a bit more abstract, but with the two statues on either side with their spears crossed you do most definitely have the vague outline of a gate underneath.

Just seems weird to completely abandon that motif for this one. Not that it's bad by any stretch, but it is a clear departure from previous login screens.

They cranked up the arch theme. Look at all those arches!

[huth]

I think they still need to change it then.

Having a button that lets you retain visage form at all times (except for the ones that require a dragon animation like deep breath) would be far better.

So say it's like some of the DH skills back in Legion, they would temporarily turn you into a demon for a few seconds and then pop you back into normal form again once the ability was over. I remember there being at least 2-3 skills that would temporarily turn you into a demon (not counting Metamorphosis)


They could do that with the Dracthyr as well, that way you can get some much needed variety in visuals when playing this class / race, on one side you can play something more akin to a dragon mage visually and while a dracthyr you get that whole dragon fantasy

What is this obsession people have with what they look like when nobody is paying attention anyway?

[Hugnomo]

login screen video

We need some flying dragons !

Freakin gorgeous, I love it.

[infinitemeridian]

So were there new animations? I want new animations more than most things lol.

[Plehnard]

We need some flying dragons !

Or just Alex showing off some sick dance moves!

[Defend]

We need some flying dragons !

god thats beautiful

[Revamp Man]

so with prepatch hitting at the end of october im going to assume we get it on ptr by the end of the month