Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Datamining makes this all known and most people probably would not be raging rn. I don't see a point in raging because I understand where they are coming from(Or what they had to endure).

[Dracullus]

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...urse_words_is/

...Dude.

Just leave this cursed land and move Blizzard to Texas. This line was genuinely funny.

[Lahis]

Oh, I didn't realize you worked for Blizzard and were privy to all their internal decision making. Can you provide more insight? Oh, wait, you're just deeply opinionated and being more brusque than in social acceptable because you're posting anonymously on a forum. Notice how everyone else is expression an opinion, yet your broadcasting yours as a fact? You really shouldn't do that.

Allied Races as marketable marquee feature have already passed. They have no financial incentive to spend that much resources to add a patch race anymore.

[Varodoc]

To think that one allied race slot was wasted for diaper gnomes no one asked for... Blizzard must be drunk.

[Sondrelk]

To think that one allied race slot was wasted for diaper gnomes no one asked for... Blizzard must be drunk.

Please don't remind me. I still feel angry at getting trashgnomes instead of Ankoan.

[Marlamin]

Can we now please, for the love of Azeroth, go back to speculating about the next expansion rather than turning this thread into something else?

I share this sentiment, there's more than enough other places to discuss this that are more well suited to the topic than in this thread.

[Raetary]

i wish they made Nightborne tattoos more opaque.

As is, they are almost invisible in-game.

[Kiivar86]

I had read that that double bladed Nightborne sword was removed from vendors, is that the case?

Pity if so, I was looking forward to that one.

[Nyel]

Btw I wanted to ask, is November a given for 9.2 announcement? Like did we get a blue post or something on it? I think I skipped that.

As of today Blizzard hasn't even mentioned 9.2 yet. Ion talked about "upcoming adventure" in his interview half a year ago, after that there was basically zero official news on 9.2.

- - - Updated - - -

If we get 9.2 early 2022, then I think Blizzard could confortable slot 10.0 into late Q3, early Q4 the same year if they wanted. Especially if 9.2 isnt particularly meaty in terms of patch content.

I mean we got 8.3 in January and Shadowlands in (October) November. So that's totally feasible.

[Sondrelk]

So what do people reckon would be the ideal way to "end" Arthas' story in Shadowlands?

Personally I wonder if the best option is to simply not show him at all until the final raid, and instead make his story about Uther learning he is trapped in Kingsmourne and woving to save both him and Anduin so he could instead be made to face proper judgment.

Not sure how it could go from there though, without an Arbiter that we know to be completely impartial it isnt really possible to just leave Arthas at her doorstep and go for an ambigous ending, so I wonder what everyone else thinks is a realistic ending.

[Nyel]

So what do people reckon would be the ideal way to "end" Arthas' story in Shadowlands?

Do we have other options than some kind of soft-redeeming, with Arthas helping us to defeat the Jailer?

[Sondrelk]

Do we have other options than some kind of soft-redeeming, with Arthas helping us to defeat the Jailer?

Well that is basically what I tried to get across in my ideal version. Sidestep the question of Arthas' culpability almost entirely and make his story about Uthers redemption saving him despite Arthas being responsible for his death.

Obviously it's almost impossible to remove the idea of a redemption completely from Arthas. They already had Ner'zhul be shown as sympathetic despite being the one that started Arthas on his path to begin with.

[Seasz]

I share this sentiment, there's more than enough other places to discuss this that are more well suited to the topic than in this thread.

New build today?

[Varodoc]

Arthas already redeemed himself, it is stated that he was the only thing keeping the Lich King from annihilating all of Azeroth. So basically if Arthas wasn't there inside the Lich King, he would have unleashed the Scourge to swarm the world like locusts.

Him coming back naturally would just be nostalgia bait, but really his story arc was already completed.

Even though Arthas will obviously come back (even though he shouldn't), I hope they'll still show the Light and/or the Void in some way. They should send their forces to wherever the Janitor went, since they can't afford Death to unmake reality. The Naaru and Void Lords' got to do something about the Janitor. Maybe Xal'atath could come into play somehow, now that she has a host body.

[Nyel]

Heavily using the Light / Void in this expansion (aka the final patch) would just add more mess to an already messy and convoluted story. Only the Burning Legion is missing then to make this clusterf*ck complete. Please let's resolve the Death-related stuff first and after that, in the pre-patch, we can set up the next expansion.

If we get the forces of the Light and Void now on top of everything else this would be an Avengers Endgame kind of situation which would be just silly.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Well that is basically what I tried to get across in my ideal version. Sidestep the question of Arthas' culpability almost entirely and make his story about Uthers redemption saving him despite Arthas being responsible for his death.

Obviously it's almost impossible to remove the idea of a redemption completely from Arthas. They already had Ner'zhul be shown as sympathetic despite being the one that started Arthas on his path to begin with.

His character always had a tragic part in him. He wielded a sword that could take souls, and put a helm called "Helm of domination" that doesn't leave room for agency.

[Raetary]

Please, no more mish-mashing plot lines.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I got to be honest I do not see a good conclusion to this expansion. They could cushion the trainwreck by literally just doing what they've teased which is to end reality but other than that if it is just a lasor beam Zovaal ending then this is just going to be a straight crash into concrete. They then have to realize that they need to take the narrative back home even if it triggers a whiplash effect with going back and forth between cosmos and Azeroth. But, yeah.

I do not believe that with the amount of mystery boxes left unanswered right now they can create a satisfactorily ending other than hoping to crunch everything to a minimum time period and then whisk everyone away with 10.0 instead and make people forget about 9.2 and the narrative of it and leave the lore nerds stewing and being angry without a care in the world as usual.

They basically have to pull the CGI Cinematic Expansion Trailer bait immediately following 9.2s Raid Cinematic aka Blizzcon Online.

[Varodoc]

Heavily using the Light / Void in this expansion (aka the final patch) would just add more mess to an already messy and convoluted story. Only the Burning Legion is missing then to make this clusterf*ck complete. Please let's resolve the Death-related stuff first and after that, in the pre-patch, we can set up the next expansion.

If we get the forces of the Light and Void now on top of everything else this would be an Avengers Endgame kind of situation which would be just silly.

The Burning Legion is disbanded with Sargeras gone.

If Sargeras was still the leader, he would undoubtedly try to stop the Janitor. We already know that the Legion was at war with the forces of Death, since Draka and the spies of Maldraxxus were deployed on a Legion world to spy on Legion troops. So there was war between the Legion and the Shadowlands.

I don't think you understand that the Janitor, in his hubris, seeks to remake reality. It would just be horrible writing if the Light and Void didn't take any drastic measure; especially the Void. It is shown many times that the Void sees Death as the "true enemy", the Void Lords should absolutely send their forces to try and stop the Janitor.

We also know that the Light made a bargain with Death, so that's one more plot thread that remains open.

Would it make for a big clusterfuck of cosmic forces? Yes. Would it also make sense? Yes, otherwise don't introduce 6 Cosmic forces all vying for Cosmic domination.

Since the Janitor seeks to unmake "ALL OF REALITY", it's clearly no longer just Death stuff. It concerns everything and everyone, Naaru and Void Lords included.

[Nyel]

The Burning Legion is disbanded with Sargeras gone.

If Sargeras was still the leader, he would undoubtedly try to stop the Janitor. We already know that the Legion was at war with the forces of Death, since Draka and the spies of Maldraxxus were deployed on a Legion world to spy on Legion troops. So there was war between the Legion and the Shadowlands.

I don't think you understand that the Janitor, in his hubris, seeks to remake reality. It would just be horrible writing if the Light and Void didn't take any drastic measure; especially the Void. It is shown many times that the Void sees Death as the "true enemy", the Void Lords should absolutely send their forces to try and stop the Janitor.

We also know that the Light made a bargain with Death, so that's one more plot thread that remains open.

Would it make for a big clusterfuck of cosmic forces? Yes. Would it also make sense? Yes, otherwise don't introduce 6 Cosmic forces all vying for Cosmic domination.

Since the Janitor seeks to unmake "ALL OF REALITY", it's clearly no longer just Death stuff. It concerns everything and everyone, Naaru and Void Lords included.

I get all of this. What you say makes sense. But they can't even untangle the single Death-related storyline. How should they get the writing for a cosmic war with 4 or 5 of the major forces right? This sounds so incredibly bad already, I don't want them to even try at this point.

Maybe the next expansion really should be tabula rasa and named World of Warcraft: Awokenings, it would fit their current agenda.