Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

I just went through Dragon Soul thinking I could get a selfie with all the Aspects for this beta competition to discover how limited the damn selfie is. Really now, they wasted a patch developing that?

This was just some dude side project. 6.1 had some content, mostly Garrison updates like raid bosses there, but it was de facto patch 6.0.5. Main mistake there was releasing Blackrock Foundry 3 weeks earlier instead of week after patch day which would link these together in community perception.

In general WoD was just breaking point of old design with raids as only PVE progression. On top of that main hub where your AFK was your personal instance and you had good reason to stay there + no real reasons to go elsewhere. Classic confirmed how outdated it is, just look how fast hype dies after most people are done with leveling.

[Varodoc]

it'll probably be a hugely successful Yrel bringing a Light version of the Burning Crusade to Azeroth,

Which is an infinitely better storyline than villain batting the Alliance because a certain group of people are still angry about the Horde getting villain batted twice.

Both the Garrosh storyline and the Sylvanas storyline were complete and utter flops, do we want a third repeat of that, but with an Alliance character for a twist? Maybe third time's the chance?

Or maybe Blizzard should just be more conservative with their characters. Turalyon can serve his purpose to the story even if he does not become a villain; if anything, it would be much better if he didn't become a villain. While Yrel can represent the fanatical side of Light worship, the side that demands submission from everyone, Turalyon can represent the moderate side of Light worship, i.e. the side that sets aside their grudge to team up with Illidan and co. after he literally blew up their Goddess.

It's important to keep a storyline grey, not black and white. If you just show evil Light users, it's boring. If you show evil Light users, but also show GOOD Light users (Turalyon and Calia) in the same conflict, it's better.

With this being said, I don't deny that Turalyon is objectively a badass option for a villain. A paladin who was blessed by the Prime Naaru with immortality and has a profound faith in the Light, as well as a skilled tactician and accomplished military commander. He would make for an incredibly tought antagonist for the protagonists, but we already have Yrel, soooo... there's really no point in villain batting Turalyon.

If Yrel didn't exist, then sure, maybe you could argue that we need more representation of the Light acting in a villainous way (the Scarlet Crusade has been in the game since Classic btw). But, with Yrel and the Lightbound, we have enough representation of villainous Light. We don't need more.

On the other hand Geya'rah is certainly not expansion material,

She's an appointed member of the Horde Council and iirc Blizzard stated that quite a sizeable force of Mag'har crossed over into Azeroth as they even brought war beasts and iron transports with them. So she is more influential than Garrosh was when he was introduced. She already proved to the world that she is objectively morally twisted as she supported Sylvanas until the very end.

Besides, if/when Geya'rah becomes a villain, she'd obviously share the spotlight with other villains. Just look at N'Zoth, he was the literal mastermind of most conflicts in Azeroth and he still had to share the spotlight of "main villain of BfA" with Sylvanas. So, just because I'm saying it makes for Geya'rah to become a villain (as she literally said she wants to see Alliance cities burn), doesn't mean I think she should literally be the main villain of an expansion.

[Caiphon]

Both the Garrosh storyline and the Sylvanas storyline were complete and utter flops, do we want a third repeat of that, but with an Alliance character for a twist? Maybe third time's the chance?

To play the Devil's Advocate here the Sylvanas arc was a failure because it was literally a copy&paste of Garrosh's story. On the other hand Arthas' fall was a monumental success and Jaina's wasn't completely bad as you have also acknowledged. Still, I don't trust the current iteration of Blizzard to pull off an Arthas so I do not wish for a Turalyon arc anytime in the near future. I just think it's fairly likely to happen considering the decades-old obsession with corruption.

She's an appointed member of the Horde Council and iirc Blizzard stated that quite a sizeable force of Mag'har crossed over into Azeroth as they even brought war beasts and iron transports with them. So she is more influential than Garrosh was when he was introduced. She already proved to the world that she is objectively morally twisted as she supported Sylvanas until the very end.

I mean Garrosh was an absolute nobody when he was first introduced in TBC yes but by Cataclysm he was warchief, the supreme leader of the Horde. The current Horde has specifically decided against having a warchief and Geya'rah's significance in the council is fairly neglible. If she ever does attempt to stir something up it would never gain traction with Thrall being where he is, and even if we manage to make Thrall retire AGAIN we've got folks like Baine, Lor'themar and Rokhan who completely outmatch her in career, power and followers (Sylvanas, on the other hand, outmached all three). She generally doesn't have the gravitas or significance that the two rogue warchiefs had (seriously, who on earth would ever be excited to fight against Geya'rah?) and as you've pointed out even those two arcs ended up very poorly. Third time's the charm? Probably not.

[huth]

My argument is not 'anything can happen', but rather that starting with Arthas, Blizzard has historically been fond of sending otherwise well meaning, righteous individuals spiraling down towards madness.

Then you haven't understood Arthas at all. Yes, he is righteous. But not really all that well-meaning and the madness was always there. Nor was he terribly smart or a good leader.

Turalyon is what Arthas wanted to be seen as.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Then you haven't understood Arthas at all. Yes, he is righteous. But not really all that well-meaning and the madness was always there. Nor was he terribly smart or a good leader.

Turalyon is what Arthas wanted to be seen as.

Madness is not the word to use, he's very quick to anger but thats not madness.

[Nymrohd]

Madness is not the word to use, he's very quick to anger but thats not madness.

YEah Arthas was just a self-righteous asshole.

[huth]

Madness is not the word to use, he's very quick to anger but thats not madness.

Well, the point is that it has always been there. None of his characteristics suddenly turned up.

[draugril]

Then you haven't understood Arthas at all. Yes, he is righteous. But not really all that well-meaning and the madness was always there. Nor was he terribly smart or a good leader.

Turalyon is what Arthas wanted to be seen as.

I always thought this would have been a better end for WoD instead of demons again. The alternate Alliance invading Draenor after Jaina takes on Gul’dan’s role and warns Azeroth of what happened in the First War. Causing the Alliance to do a pre-emptive strike, taking out the Iron Horde, our Horde, and our Alliance. Why our Alliance? Because the First War heroes were true paragons of the virtues of the Alliance. The current leaders don’t live up to those ideals. It would be a sobering experience for our Alliance, at war for 30 or so years, to realize how twisted by conflict they’ve become. To the point that their heroes view them the same as Orcs.

[ChairmanKaga]

I haven't seen much about it in the beta but have they been updating the old dragon models (and dragonkin, drakonids etc) or are all the new models only in the new continent area?

[Nymrohd]

I always thought this would have been a better end for WoD instead of demons again. The alternate Alliance invading Draenor after Jaina takes on Gul’dan’s role and warns Azeroth of what happened in the First War. Causing the Alliance to do a pre-emptive strike, taking out the Iron Horde, our Horde, and our Alliance. Why our Alliance? Because the First War heroes were true paragons of the virtues of the Alliance. The current leaders don’t live up to those ideals. It would be a sobering experience for our Alliance, at war for 30 or so years, to realize how twisted by conflict they’ve become. To the point that their heroes view them the same as Orcs.

While I would have loved for the seven Kingdoms to get the treatment of the Draenor clans (so much lore we could get) it would also divert too much time away from Azeroth proper.

But damn can you imagine fighting against AU Medivh and AU Lothar. The reasoning could be that AU Medivh as a true Guardian realized this was an opportunity to occupy and safeguard MU Azeroth by using the existing time portal. Then he'd attack us with the full might of the Kirin Tor, Seven Kingdoms and Council of Three Hammers behind him not to kill and conquer but to take over.

But no one would know he was Sargeras all along.

[Raetary]

Treant form is now back, its just cosmetic though.

[micwini]

anyone not subbed got into beta ?

Im not subbed, but I do keep my gametime running. I do have beta.

[Raetary]

Im not subbed, but I do keep my gametime running. I do have beta.

I don't think Blizzard differentiates between a sub and bought game time.

[micwini]

I feel like you have a bigger chance of getting into beta if you report bugs in the live game once in a while.

[Lahis]

Treant form is now back, its just cosmetic though.

Been like that since Cata changed Tree of Life into Incarnation instead of normal shapeshift for Resto

[Raetary]

Been like that since Cata changed Tree of Life into Incarnation instead of normal shapeshift for Resto

I'm aware, but the spell was taught by a cosmetic spell tome before.
Now its baseline, even though it does nothing.

[Nyel]

I'm surprised how long it takes them to announce a final release date. I don't know how it was in the past, but Dragonflight is supposedly launching in two months and they are not sure to announce a fixed date yet?

[Zaganite]

I'm surprised how long it takes them to announce a final release date. I don't know how it was in the past, but Dragonflight is supposedly launching in two months and they are not sure to announce a fixed date yet?

Most organisations (where I'm from) require four weeks notice for time off so if anyone is looking to book time off for launch then it has to be October. I can see it happening in the next two weeks if I'm honest.

[Nyel]

Most organisations (where I'm from) require four weeks notice for time off so if anyone is looking to book time off for launch then it has to be October. I can see it happening in the next two weeks if I'm honest.

WotLK Classic launches next Tuesday (26th), so I don't think it would be the best time to announce it. Either this week or early October, imho.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I've had the beta little over a month now with probably 5 total hours sunk into it. I did Legion, BfA and SL beta testing and was thoroughly hyped during those. This is the 1st time where I just do not have any drive to play this coming expansion. Sad days ahead.