Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[The Stormbringer]

Look, Sylvanas! New outfit confirmed. A dramatic improvement.

She looks totally depressed. Good.

[KainneAbsolute]

I am not a fan of art (dunno why it reminds me of Minecraft). Surely, you can do more crazy stuff with new physics.

BUT I guess the first ones wanted a pleasant workshop and not a crazy world to show to mortals.

This new area would be an awesome addition to the Archaeology profession...

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Again, it's kinda painfully obvious.

It’s really fucking not.

[bagina]

It's a good look and I'd laugh my ass of if this is all an elaborate way to resolve the sword business. It is the exact azerite texture used for the N'zoth beam.
@bagina

No hood. Clearly not my Sylvanas.

She's been NOT MUH for quite a while now :[

[Nyel]

Taken from a Korean website:



SL was designed to be short filler before 10.0, as I always expected.

I mean that’s what I was saying from the beginning. Maybe a 9.3 was never planned.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Anyone else getting Azerite vibes from the stuff behind Jailer?

After healing them wooooooons for months, I think we can all guarantee that YES. This is Azerite. Is Zovaal... trying to absorb the power/flow of Azeroth?

[Valysar]

I am surprised not to have heard the famous sentence : you'll be able to test it soon on the PTR"

[EbaumsTipster]

"We totally didn't remove or shorten the story at all!" Yes, I totally, completely believe them. /s

Sylvanas is fought in the second raid. They made a short ass story.

[Grimbold21]

Those "tier sets" look painfully uniform in their aesthetics. I would venture that only the Hunter and Monk sets come out on top as being slightly more distinctive than the rest. But the artistic decision clearly lies in the sets reflecting the theme of the zone, rather that evidencing class undertones.

[Nyel]

Is someone else just whelmed? I mean it looks nice, but as the conclusion of Shadowlands? This is everything the MIGHTY Zovaal wanted?

Even if this was always planned this way, it’s pretty weak. And it gives me the feeling of being a rushed job although being already months too late. Not talking about art, that’s always been great. But content, story, features… it just lacks oomph.

[Hugnomo]

After healing them wooooooons for months, I think we can all guarantee that YES. This is Azerite. Is Zovaal... trying to absorb the power/flow of Azeroth?

Maybe we'll learn that the blade is siphoning off her energy, and that Sargeras or Argus had been working with the Jailer all along.

[EbaumsTipster]

Is someone else just whelmed? I mean it looks nice, but as the conclusion of Shadowlands? This is everything the MIGHTY Zovaal wanted?

Even if this was always planned this way, it’s pretty weak. And it gives me the feeling of being a rushed job although being already months too late. Not talking about art, that’s always been great. But content, story, features… it just lacks oomph.

Why should they put a lot of effort into the final patch of a filler expansion that is vocally hated?

People wanted another Legion, they are doing another Legion.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

This was not in the video!

Also sucks there won't 9.3 and new dungeon in 9.2.
But what saga are they talking about?

Also art team delivered once again!

They are saying If I understand it.

Warcraft and all of it is basically one Book(Or even just one trilogy) and the next phase of the franchise is coming soon. Thats how you should take it, they are very cagey about details which is fine, its a preview not a deep dive.


Ot: I can definitely see the feeling alien vibe here and if people don't like it well the door is ------>

It is purposeful and I think they nailed it, of course we only have a small bit of what it is. My question is, Anduin, Sylvanas and whatever dangerous power inside the Sepulcher. Among other things. The tier sets aren't for me because well some designs aren't to my taste and thats ok. And yeah there's gonna be some form of a grind. Shiver me timbers.

[micwini]

Is someone else just whelmed? I mean it looks nice, but as the conclusion of Shadowlands? This is everything the MIGHTY Zovaal wanted?

Even if this was always planned this way, it’s pretty weak. And it gives me the feeling of being a rushed job although being already months too late. Not talking about art, that’s always been great. But content, story, features… it just lacks oomph.

Its a simple story, I think it is spaced over such a long period that it seems weak.

[Nyel]

Why should they put a lot of effort into the final patch of a filler expansion that is vocally hated?

People wanted another Legion, they are doing another Legion.

I don’t disagree here. But even 6.2 had more OOOMPH than this patch. And Warlords of Draenor was meant to be more. But Shadowlands was always meant to be… this? Uhm.

Super funny how whelmed Reddit is, some of the responses there are hilarious.

[Vakir]

This big bag of nothing definitely wasn't worth the hype that some of you tricked yourselves into wanting it to be.

It's just more of the same.

Thank you.

I've never been so "meh" about the concepts of "alien aesthetic unlike we've never seen" when so much of it apes a combination of Titan and Black Empire stuff. There's lore reasons, yes, but nothing about this impressed me. I've seen so much like it in places like Ulduar, Nya'lotha, Sholazar, or parts of Antorus. A lot of Karazhan influence. Floating pieces of geometry aren't fresh to me, they're practically a level designer cheat code at this point. Nagrand...do I need to go on?

The class sets all share the same aesthetic even though they're technically individual in silhouette. The thing that worked about tier sets was the theming was the same but they all took from aesthetics surrounding it - sets that drew on inspirations of either enemies or core factions within the patch they were attached to. "This one has a San'layn OR a Nerubian OR Frost Wyrm aesthetic." These sets literally all look like Argus quest gear.

The only unique feature in the entire patch is...basically Al Bhed Primers, only it's for what is certain to be mandatory and critical pieces of story and not a bonus for a side faction. That's sure to not be infuriating.

I get that this is thread ratios strongly in the direction of the hype train, but I simply do not get the reception. The most "alien" thing to me here is how everyone is acting and I mean that sincerely not trying to thread-shit.

[The Stormbringer]

I posted this in another thread, but I'll post it here too and elaborate some:

You know, weirdly enough, one of the things I don't mind is the idea of the afterlife being artificial. It kinda gives the First Ones more legitimacy, in my mind. Imagine some ancient progenitor species, filling a universe with life but realizing that once they die, there will be nothing left, and wanting to fix that. So they create a new dimension, attune it to the souls of the dead, and build the machinery needed to pump out specialized afterlives to house them all.

It's actually one of the few things about Shadowlands I can kind of get behind. I like the whole idea of the Shadowlands being a naturally occurring thing more originally, but this honestly isn't bad, for me at least.

Am I the only one who enjoys this idea? An ancient precursor race that literally has to build the universe and the afterlife?

[Super Dickmann]

Is someone else just whelmed? I mean it looks nice, but as the conclusion of Shadowlands? This is everything the MIGHTY Zovaal wanted?

Even if this was always planned this way, it’s pretty weak. And it gives me the feeling of being a rushed job although being already months too late. Not talking about art, that’s always been great. But content, story, features… it just lacks oomph.

While a lot of people are a lot harsher on the expansion than I am, you really summarize it. It's not bad, fine, really, but that's about it. Its greatest problem is colouring only in the lines. Everything you think will happen happens and all exaggeration aside, nothing is gallingly bad except the patch cadence. It feels like a box ticking exercise.

@Grimbold21

I get why they're doing it I don't even really disagree with the decision to both have class raid sets to maximize appearances agian and to base it on the raid to keep away shit like how same-y most DK and DH sets look and the limited design space of some classes. But I'm unconvinced that this aesthetic couldn't have been stretched out more. While the shapes don't blend, the colours definitely do which makes the whole thing look more generic than it actually is.

[Dracullus]

Ok, we can finally end 9.3/no-9.3 talk.

Let's start discussion if 10.0 will launch for next Christmas or not. Deadline is around April, but very likely it was planned on Blizzconline.

[Nyel]

No it's literally just them trying to copy FFXIV and Endwalker. FFXIV set up a long story with multiple threads that paid off and didn't change on a whim. WoW can't even stay tonally consistent within a single patch much less an expansion. So it's literally just them looking at what XIV did with it's story and wishing they had come up with it.

It's basically this. And they think they succeeded with it? lol

WoD -> Legion was good, I give them that. But everything after was just horrible storytelling.