Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Parsed through the Ion interview a bit, some snap thoughts.

- 9.2 is the final patch is basically now confirmed with Ion saying we'll hear about the "Conclusion of Shadowlands."

- Game is moving toward "Accessbility" which hopefully means no more artificial engagement borrowed powers.

- "simple core fantasy" makes me hopeful for 10.0 not being Lifelands.

- "Mindful of bloat" makes me worried though. The game needs more bloat especially in the class design department. Even with the unprune core rotations are still too simplified for me.

[EbaumsTipster]

GamesBeat: "You talked about 9.2 a bit, but beyond that, should we expect a 2.5 or a .3 for this expansion cycle? Or will it be 9.2 and then looking toward the next thing?"

Hazzikostas: "We’ll be talking a bit more about the conclusion to Shadowlands in more detail in the future. Yes, 9.2 is coming, you’ll be hearing about that more soon. We do have more planned after that. But it’s hard to say too much more without almost spoiling some of the story that’s going to come. We’ll have a lot of details on that soon, but we want to be able to explain it in the full context of what 9.2 is going to be."

Ugh, that part has me kinda worried. Especially the part about explaining "what" 9.2 is.

That sounds a lot like 9.2 is the final patch. There will inevitably be some blowback to it so he's being cautious, but when the first thing Ion says is THE CONCLUSION...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

This could be an opportunity to implement a time skip for when we return to Azeroth... if they have decided that time moves so differently to explain it. For example, you could say 30 or 50 years have passed and us the "heroes" have become legends/myths that generations of people have passed down from our generation to the next generation.


Then all of a sudden we the heroes and the faction leaders who are also apart of those legends/myths/stories re-appear in an unfamiliar Azeroth that moved on while we were away.

I think you vastly underestimate how long it takes for "heroes" to pass into "legends."

[therumblings]

I just don't wanna get my hopes up again, only to have them be crushed. I am expecting 10.0 to not be a world revamp, but if it is I will be pleasantly surprised and my entire MMO champion career will have been fulfilled and validated

[Varodoc]

At this point, your characters are heroes and there is no way that they can go back to being anonymous adventurers, but the team also wants to go back to simple core fantasy and not so much more escalating cosmic adventures.

It's confirmed at this point. 10.0 will be a World revamp like Cataclysm and spotlight will be given again to the small stories in Westfall, Duskwood, Redridge Mountains, etc.

Maybe with fewer pop culture references this time

[EbaumsTipster]

It's confirmed at this point. 10.0 will be a World revamp like Cataclysm and spotlight will be given again to the small stories in Westfall, Duskwood, Redridge Mountains, etc.

I wouldn't say confirmed. Dragon Isles could be a small scale thing, but the way he is talking about how Zovaal's actions DIRECTLY link to 10.0... I don't think it's Dragon Isles.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Ion interview really feels like 10.0 being a big reboot with revamp and crossfaction is happening. Note that he mentions he wants to go back to small scale stuff... so, EK and Kalimdor.

No, he said they know both sides of the argument and he did his very best to skirt the line between both sides to keep both of them hoping.

[Ersula]

Ion interview really feels like 10.0 being a big reboot with revamp and crossfaction is happening. Note that he mentions he wants to go back to small scale stuff... so, EK and Kalimdor.

Sounds like my pitch for a classic RPG themed expansion:

Current 10.0 Prediction

Light & Void plot but it won't be evident at the start of the expansion. And not Light vs. Void, but Light & Void team up to take over Azeroth, using Turalyon & Alleria as their avatars. But they sell the expansion as an old-school RPG set up:
*Classic Tabletop inspired content. Dragon Hordes, Kobold Caves, Etc.
*Modular make-your-own dungeon feature. Players make their own non-canon D&D inspired instances, like in EQ2 or Neverwinter. Under the guise of players sitting at a tabletop game within WoW, like the homage in Boralus.
*New Bard Class

Hey it would even be the perfect place to fit their Dragon Isles ideas.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It's confirmed at this point. 10.0 will be a World revamp like Cataclysm and spotlight will be given again to the small stories in Westfall, Duskwood, Redridge Mountains, etc.

Maybe with fewer pop culture references this time

They won't spotlight "small regional conflicts" outside of the revamp itself.

Even if they go with a more grounded, Azeroth-set, core fantasy story they'll still have one overarching story for the 60-70 content. They won't do another Cataclysm.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I think you vastly underestimate how long it takes for "heroes" to pass into "legends."

I'm aware of it, but I'm providing a simple outline on how to explain 1.) us be recognized by Azeroth if we return after a time skip and 2.) still feel like it's a different Azeroth we're coming back to.


It doesn't have to be "legends" on the scale of like how they explained Turalyon and Alleria being gone for so long. But enough of time to "tell the story of" these heroes/adventurers.


Perhaps I shouldn't have used the "legend" term.

[EbaumsTipster]

Sounds like my pitch for a classic RPG themed expansion:
.

I think your expansion is likely going to happen, but instead of Alleria as the main void character it will be Azshara or Xalatath.

Turalyon as an antagonist I'm 99% certain on (NOT A VILLAIN) and manipulated by Lothraxion. They pretty much set this up in the Revendreth book. But the Light v Void overall theme but smaller Azeroth story is what will happen.

[Sondrelk]

It's confirmed at this point. 10.0 will be a World revamp like Cataclysm and spotlight will be given again to the small stories in Westfall, Duskwood, Redridge Mountains, etc.

Maybe with fewer pop culture references this time

Are yo usaying you are not ready for the Tanaris questline where you help the Troll Downe Jr. build a mechsuit and go around wisecracking? Or the Wetlands questline where you help the young spunky Dwarf Reye defeat hundreds of Horde carriers?

[Varodoc]

They won't spotlight "small regional conflicts" outside of the revamp itself.

Even if they go with a more grounded, Azeroth-set, core fantasy story they'll still have one overarching story for the 60-70 content. They won't do another Cataclysm.

They won't do another Cataclysm because they understood that making 5 or so new zones all on opposite extremes of the map is stupid. No doubt the new zones will form a new compact continent as per usual.

I'm not even sure what made them think making 5 new zones all on different existing continents was a good idea, the questing experience of Cataclysm in the 80-85 bracket was very fragmented and disconnected.

[Sondrelk]

Ugh, that part has me kinda worried. Especially the part about explaining "what" 9.2 is.

You are definitely overthinking this bit. This is a perfectly natural way to talk about what the next patch will be about and contain content-wise.

[EbaumsTipster]

Hazzikostas: I don’t think it is, no. That’s definitely feedback we hear as well. There are some who like that escalation. We’ve faced the Titans. What comes next? Let’s go through the whole cosmology. There are others who miss just being in an inn in Elwynn Forest, being an adventurer on a more humble scale. At this point the WoW protagonists are heroes. You’ve done a lot of stuff. You’ll probably never go back to being anonymous adventurers in the forest. But Azeroth is the heart of the WoW franchise, and it started with orcs and humans and dwarves and night elves and the rest. We want to get back to that too. There’s room to tell a big cosmic-scale story, and there’s also room for more traditional core fantasy. That’s not something we want to lose sight of.

We're definitely going back to Azeroth.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

They won't do another Cataclysm because they understood that making 5 or so new zones all on opposite extremes of the map is stupid. No doubt the new zones will form a new compact continent as per usual.

I'm not even sure what made them think making 5 new zones all on different existing continents was a good idea, the questing experience of Cataclysm in the 80-85 bracket was very fragmented and disconnected.

"What if we added in the missing Vanilla zones" was probably their thoght process on that.

- - - Updated - - -

Hazzikostas: I don’t think it is, no. That’s definitely feedback we hear as well. There are some who like that escalation. We’ve faced the Titans. What comes next? Let’s go through the whole cosmology. There are others who miss just being in an inn in Elwynn Forest, being an adventurer on a more humble scale. At this point the WoW protagonists are heroes. You’ve done a lot of stuff. You’ll probably never go back to being anonymous adventurers in the forest. But Azeroth is the heart of the WoW franchise, and it started with orcs and humans and dwarves and night elves and the rest. We want to get back to that too. There’s room to tell a big cosmic-scale story, and there’s also room for more traditional core fantasy. That’s not something we want to lose sight of.

We're definitely going back to Azeroth.

The fact he singled out the Inn we have an HD model for feels like winking directly at us.

[Raetary]

Cross-faction raiding is a bit more on the radar now. If Jaina and Thrall are working together, why can't the players?

And so it begins.

[Sondrelk]

They won't do another Cataclysm because they understood that making 5 or so new zones all on opposite extremes of the map is stupid. No doubt the new zones will form a new compact continent as per usual.

I'm not even sure what made them think making 5 new zones all on different existing continents was a good idea, the questing experience of Cataclysm in the 80-85 bracket was very fragmented and disconnected.

If they are doing a full revamp I would hope that they do it kinda like I imagined it. Designate only a few areas like Barrens, Azshara and Stonetalon as the Horde levelling zone for 10-50, and focus on a few choice zones for actual endgame content like Desolace, Feralas and Thousand needles.
Given the small amount of detail and general variety within each of the old zones its perfectly feasible to have quite a few more zones than usual for endgame. Or at least several zones that encompass the same reputations. Like for instance having all Dwarf zones in the Eastern Kingdoms be considered the same "zone" for the purposes of individual zone reputations.

Though on the topic of reputations I really hope Blizzard goes back to having reputations be a bit more varied. I know that the reason they are so strictly limited to a single zone is because of emissaries, but hopefully Blizzard could at least make some world quests give reputation for several factions. Like the Kyrian quest in Maldraxxus giving both Kyrian and Necrolord rep.

[EbaumsTipster]

And so it begins.

The greatest hopium of our time.

[Ersula]

I think your expansion is likely going to happen, but instead of Alleria as the main void character it will be Azshara or Xalatath.

Turalyon as an antagonist I'm 99% certain on (NOT A VILLAIN) and manipulated by Lothraxion. They pretty much set this up in the Revendreth book. But the Light v Void overall theme but smaller Azeroth story is what will happen.

But Azshara & Xalathath have old God vibes: The Old Gods weren't particularly aligned with the Void Lords, only that they had mastered shadow magic & used to try to take over the world: Meanwhile Alleria has a void entity influencing her & is in complete denial about it: She has only become more obsessed with the Sunwell after she almost let it become corrupted. (Plus then when it's over we won't need a whole forced redemption arc because she was just being mind-controlled)

Plus if the Light & Void team up it would be fun seeing Lightbound & Dark Wizards having the typical WOW faction war dialog: "We'll put our differences aside temporarily so we can deal with this bigger threat: The WoW player community"