Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

three pages of discussion, that's all the hype from 9.2

This is probably the worst reveal of anything WoW related in a long time. There's no clarity and they again refrained from just being candid and explaining what the plans are instead they just make it narratively obvious that this is the end of the expansion. Not only that but the whole reveal was so extremely weird and again just felt extremely out of context even for Lore Theorycrafters.

Also again we got more information from the interviews than from the Preview itself which is a big problem in of itself.

Also again, the Tier Sets seem very gimped as if it is intentional so they can scrap the Tier Sets for next expansion again. Oh and also Zereth Mortis just does not really look like anything I expected. It comes off as a Titan Facility when it is the Originator of Afterlives for the First Ones who are under direct order of the Firster Ones (The Architect?)

Honestly the narrative reveals in this Preview were genuinely baffling even for Theorycrafters, like how exactly are we going to make sense of all of this nonsense. There's like hundreds of questions that are just left in the ether and probably won't even be revealed in the zone.

Not to speak of the fact that the Prototype of Pantheon of Death indicates some really big lore questions and also completely removes the Pantheon of Order from the equation and means that the Shadowlands were ordered by the First Ones. Although that's only on a surface level, obviously they could still be involved.

[Valysar]

What are the odds of PTR going live today?

Unlikely according to Ion. In 1-2 weeks :/
(4 days ago he said "in a few weeks")

[Aeluron Lightsong]

in the next 3 weeks I'm guessing.

[Cherry123]

I wonder how much content has been cut?

Many characters were useless in this expansion

Baine, Kalia, Taelia, Bolvar, Jaina and Thrall

they were all out of place here

[Chipped coin]

So... is the mawwalker thing going to be just like the sword sticking in azeroth?

Why could we escape the maw and use first one tech when lore wise no one else can?

Is the answer just dont think about it?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

So... is the mawwalker thing going to be just like the sword in sticking in azeroth?

Why could we escape the maw and use first one tech when lore wise no one else can?

Is the answer just dont think about it?

They aren't going to spoil story stuff until it gets revealed. Also someone has already pointed out the sword in the planet can't just be pulled out, thats incredibly dumb(See how in medical fields don't take sharp objects out of a wound, it would just cause excess bleeding).

[Chipped coin]

They aren't going to spoil story stuff until it gets revealed.

So... about that sword or the old god being summoned in tbc...

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

All of this will be revealed in this patch. They are even putting in Nathanos and catfighting with Sylvanas and Tyrande.

It is pretty clear they want to throw everything and the kitchen sink narratively into 9.2.

Some questions will probably remain unanswered, however. That is the way of rushed storylines afterall.

[Sondrelk]

Could be they are making it a Battle Pass System. Renown always felt like a prototype for the inevitable Battle Pass. Blizzard loves iterative design, so it would make sense and higher ups know that is a system that all other games have and players won't be too upset about it. More monetization is always good in their eyes.

Why exactly do you think battle pass monetization is the obvious next step when looking at Renown? That feels like looking at the conduit system and leaping to the obvious next step being buyable DPS boosts.

Renown is a timegating system that incentivizes playing each week in a way that doesn't have as many downsides as reputation gating.
There are benefits to playing each week, but new players are also not massively behind once they get started.

[AngerFork]

They don't have to delete old world like during Cata. All could just remain as optional leveling path in Chromie time, including Cata EK/Kalimdor, which would just exist behind portal in Caverns of Time.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense given how many people were upset about losing the old content when Cata came out. Definitely would prefer to have it in Caverns of Time rather than Zidormi (sp?) pulling overtime in every revamped zone.

So... is the mawwalker thing going to be just like the sword in sticking in azeroth?

Why could we escape the maw and use first one tech when lore wise no one else can?

Is the answer just dont think about it?

I'm not sure if it's still the answer (& it would be nice if the game actually answered this for us), but the devs hinted back at Blizzcon 2019 that our maw walking ability was due to the Heart of Azeroth and/or our link to Azeroth herself. It's possible that was the answer at one time & just got dropped on the floor or that I gave a 9.2 spoiler and don't even know it yet. Apologies if it's the latter.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Our connection to Azeroth is most of it and there's not much to it, not necessary. If there is more I assume they'd do it in 9.2 but I think the focus is Zerath Mortis.

[Dracullus]

We know at least unlocking second legendary will be account-wide, I guess it doesn't have to be said that flying as well. But whole system should be account-wide from the beginning, even if it would be more grindy in exchange.

[Nyel]

So... is the mawwalker thing going to be just like the sword sticking in azeroth?

Why could we escape the maw and use first one tech when lore wise no one else can?

Is the answer just dont think about it?

It feels like a completely disconnected storyline. I mean the Maw seems to be completely forgotten after 9.1.5 which is weird by how present it was for more than half of Shadowland‘s lifetime. I mean it makes sense as players hated the Maw, but from a narrative point it’s very weird.

[Dracullus]

It feels like a completely disconnected storyline. I mean the Maw seems to be completely forgotten after 9.1.5 which is weird by how present it was for more than half of Shadowland‘s lifetime. I mean it makes sense as players hated the Maw, but from a narrative point it’s very weird.

It's like saying it's weird that game forgotten about Suramar in 7.2 and Broken Shore in 7.3. Story is finished there, we move to new places.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Not really weird, he wants to rewrite reality to where everyone and everything serves him.

[Nyel]

It's like saying it's weird that game forgotten about Suramar in 7.2 and Broken Shore in 7.3. Story is finished there, we move to new places.

The Suramar storyline was clearly resolved. Was the Maw storyline? What happens to the Jailer‘s forces? To all the souls that are / were sent there? What happens to Torghast?

Do you think they will answer all these questions in a patch that brings us away from the Shadowlands completely?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The Suramar storyline was clearly resolved. Was the Maw storyline? What happens to the Jailer‘s forces? To all the souls that are / were sent there? What happens to Torghast?

Do you think they will answer all these questions in a patch that brings us away from the Shadowlands completely?

The thing does this matter at this point. I feel like a lot of the things happening currently is basically about handwaving all the issues away. (Anduin teaching us how to resist Jailors Domination Magic (LOL?))

I mean for gods sake the next expansion is a Azeroth Revamp expansion under an extremely rushed timeline of Q4 2022 and everyone is like "Yes, this will be fine and now we will have a Azeroth expansion with 3 Major Content Patches and it will be so much better".

When it is very likely that this will in turn lead to another crash into the wall of the train station.

[AngerFork]

The Suramar storyline was clearly resolved. Was the Maw storyline? What happens to the Jailer‘s forces? To all the souls that are / were sent there? What happens to Torghast?

Do you think they will answer all these questions in a patch that brings us away from the Shadowlands completely?

They may answer them, but I feel this storyline is resolved at this point. The Jailer has brought the Maw around Oribos during the Sylvanas fight, then he left to Zereth Mortis. We can tell from a few bits in the video that the Jailer has some of his forces with him in the Sepulcher. As for the souls sent to the Maw, that's likely still to be determined once we've stopped the Jailer from rewriting reality, but that whole Maw around Oribos thing is also an issue. We have to stop him to save the Shadowlands, we can determine what happens with it after...all of it, including Torghast.

Right now, the Jailer is the biggest problem we need to resolve, so it makes sense the spotlight would turn to where he's gone.

[huth]

They may answer them, but I feel this storyline is resolved at this point. The Jailer has brought the Maw around Oribos during the Sylvanas fight, then he left to Zereth Mortis. We can tell from a few bits in the video that the Jailer has some of his forces with him in the Sepulcher. As for the souls sent to the Maw, that's likely still to be determined once we've stopped the Jailer from rewriting reality, but that whole Maw around Oribos thing is also an issue. We have to stop him to save the Shadowlands, we can determine what happens with it after...all of it, including Torghast.

Right now, the Jailer is the biggest problem we need to resolve, so it makes sense the spotlight would turn to where he's gone.

It would also seem that the Covenants mostly have the Maw under control now, especially after the Jailer is no longer overseeing it personally. Zovaal is the most important threat so that's what we focus our attention on, the rest can be handled by the rank and file.

[Chickat]

What is it that places Shadowlands higher for you?

For me, it's just such a mess of an expansion. It basically has none of the things I enjoy in WoW.

- Zones are bland and uninspired, disconnected and generally boring. They don't feel natural and therefore not immersive.

- Music is forgettable at best, save for maybe 1-2 tracks

- Art is perhaps the worst it's ever been, not in terms of quality but creativity and consistency with the Warcraft franchise. Everything feels either dull and depressing, or bland and generic.

- The story is, as most would agree, a travesty. It's just Sylvanas, the Jailer, Anduin, and a set of supporting characters only there to chase the Jailer. Too many mysteries, too few answers, little to no payoff, and again very disconnected from usual Warcraft stuff. Where are all the cinematics?!

- Professions are still an afterthought despite Blizzard's promises to improve. There's not even any point in going out to collect stuff.

- The systems are arguably worse than they were in BfA, and I honestly can't find anything redeeming about Covenants, Conduits, etc.

- The content itself and the new features are a massive dud, even more so than Island Expeditions and Warfronts. We all hate Torghast more or less.

Well, there is no large mandatory grind. At least not on the scale of bfa or Legion.

Warfronts and islands were terrible. I really like torghast. Legendary crafting isn't perfect but I think it's cool.

9.1 content is better than 8.1 or 8.3 content imo.

8.2 was pretty good, but it remains to be seen how good 9.2 will be. I don't think shadowlands will be vastly Superior to bfa, buy if 9.2 is pretty good I think I will personally enjoy it more.