Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

This is the inverse of rose-tinted glasses. Yes, these features technically improved over time. On, paper, Shadowlands is infinitely better than Legion. The difference is that Legion introduced these systems. They were new and novel and fresh. Yes, they were rough, but much of that was forgiven simply because people were enjoying new experiences, and much of it was ironed out later on in Legion, BfA, and SL.

The tragedy is, no matter how improved these systems are now, they aren't new. Or novel. Or fresh. You will tire of even your favourite meal if you eat it every day.

They were absolutely forgiven, but its disingenous to say that there was not legitimate outrage over them at the time.

[Kokolums]

Some people are wearing shit-colored glasses and would have you believe Legion was hated when it was current but it was the most popular expac in recent times.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They were absolutely forgiven, but its disingenous to say that there was not legitimate outrage over them at the time.

Thats my point, people ignore the rage at the time Legion was doing. I am not gonna say I didn't enjoy it(I did, right until the end did the AP grind start to get to me).

[Sondrelk]

Some people are wearing shit-colored glasses and would have you believe Legion was hated when it was current but it was the most popular expac in recent times.

Noone is saying it was hated, we are simply pointing out that there were the same complaints of WoW being dead, or shit systems, or what have you back then, just like there are now. And that just like now, there were legitimate criticisms.

The issue is that some players seem to consider Legion this holy grail of WoW development were everyone was happy, when the reality was that there were players that complained endlessly, just like now. And that there were players who had legitimate problems with the game, just like now.

[Ersula]

What I want are Class Skins. For example, a Class Skin for Frost Mages that turns their spells purple and void-y, befitting of the aesthetic of the "cold nothingness" from which the Ren'dorei draw their strength. I might switch from Shadow Priest and main that then.

Let the Art team go crazy, they're the ones carrying WoW anyway, so you might as well give them full freedom to do whatever they want with the core system of the game: Classes.

what annoys me about fans asking for "class skins" is that what they're suggesting is already in the game & has been ignored because fans aren't asking for them: Glyphs. Glyphs were specifically made to do what you're describing. Put a void glyph on a paladins passive & boom, all your spells get purple shaders

[Magistrate]

what annoys me about fans asking for "class skins" is that what they're suggesting is already in the game & has been ignored because fans aren't asking for them: Glyphs. Glyphs were specifically made to do what you're describing. Put a void glyph on a paladins passive & boom, all your spells get purple shaders

I hear what you're saying, but I think this foundationally misunderstands several things.

If players were just like oh we want glyphs, we would get the milquetoast glyph system we already had. Glyphs were neat but really weren't a fleshed out system distinct from anything else, and they realistically offered very little visual changes. Often, these visual changes were nearly unnoticeable unless you knew about them already, and were often with really crappy effects. They also only applied to single abilities and you could only equip a couple.

What people are asking for is wholesale visual swaps. Not the above.

I agree that in the UI this could be ACCOMPLISHED by Glyphs, but that isn't fundamentally what glyphs did, and mass asking for them back would probably just result in Blizzard thinking people want Glyphs when what they want is class skins.

It's like the difference from getting housing and getting static, uncustomizable, glitchy, economy breaking garrisons.

[Nathanyel]

Exactly, just look at how former Druid glyphs were improved by turning them into (account-wide!) Unlockables that enabled options at the Barbershop.

Elaborate on that idea for visuals of class spells in general, or wearable doodads (Librams!) and you get a great system for Class Customization.
Bundle hyper-specific options together and you have a Class Skin.

[Grimbold21]

Some people are wearing shit-colored glasses and would have you believe Legion was hated when it was current but it was the most popular expac in recent times.

While other people believe that a current product/expansion is always measured agaisnt its predecessors. Legion was liked in part because it meant we had finally moved out of WoD.

Although I would argue that this isn't as relevant between BFA and SL cause they're both bad.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I mean, you don't need a world revamp to tell a story centered in the old world.

Phasing during story quests is completely viable. Phasing after a certain quest is completed is completely viable.

Implying that an entire world and zone revamp is necessary to have content set in Azeroth, or know how Azeroth zones have been playing out in the last years is stupid.

Sure, there are some things like the Barrens crater which you can't just phase away, or the Plaguelands, or whatever, but for a majority of the zones, you don't need a full revamp if you want content set there.

8.3 proved that.

We absolutely don't need a full revamp, at least not to the scale of Cataclysm's "just delete it all and rebuild it to support flying."

The overall terrain geometry isn't as bad as some people like to make it out to be. Blizz can start from there. Smooth things out that look overly jagged, apply their fancy terrain painting skills they created in MoP, delete the fire effects from the Barrens but keep the crater, drop in some HD Doodads, write the new quests, done.

Sounds like a lot but the biggest time sink is having to re-sculpt the land and this time they don't need to do that, it's already flight-ready.

[Varodoc]

what annoys me about fans asking for "class skins" is that what they're suggesting is already in the game & has been ignored because fans aren't asking for them: Glyphs. Glyphs were specifically made to do what you're describing. Put a void glyph on a paladins passive & boom, all your spells get purple shaders

Sorry not sorry for annoying you then I guess

[AngerFork]

what annoys me about fans asking for "class skins" is that what they're suggesting is already in the game & has been ignored because fans aren't asking for them: Glyphs. Glyphs were specifically made to do what you're describing. Put a void glyph on a paladins passive & boom, all your spells get purple shaders

Agreed to a certain extent, though the glyph system would have needed updates in it's previous iteration to make it work. But moreso the problem I feel glyphs have is the UI is atrocious. The old setup of having a list that you could add a few customizations was nice, easy to add/remove & see what you had. But this current system where you have to assign it to a spell that has an easy-to-miss UI corner color in the spellbook is just terrible.

If they fix up the UI, I tend to agree that Glyphs could well solve a lot of the class skin needs.

[TomatoBisque]

Some people are wearing shit-colored glasses and would have you believe Legion was hated when it was current but it was the most popular expac in recent times.

These can both be true. Legion had a lot of shitty mechanics and design decisions but 7.3.5 was a good patch and most people only remember the last patch when they think about an expansion since they last half the expansion's lifetime.

Almost everything people hate about BFA and SL was in Legion

[Sondrelk]

These can both be true. Legion had a lot of shitty mechanics and design decisions but 7.3.5 was a good patch and most people only remember the last patch when they think about an expansion since they last half the expansion's lifetime.

Almost everything people hate about BFA and SL was in Legion

It wasnt just that things players hated in BfA and SL was in Legion, but that it was far worse in Legion. Maybe not bad enough in comparisin to offset the lack of novelty, but still pretty galling.
Crafting Legendary gear is a bit annoying, but nowhere near the shit parade that was Legiondary acquisition in 7.0 and 7.1. Whether the lack of novelty is enough to say it was done better in Legion is hard to say though. Should Blizzard have made legendary crafting more painless considering what they learned in Legion, for instance?

[Nyel]

I wish I could share the optimism towards an upcoming world revamp in 10.0. In the end it will be Dragon Isles and we all will be stunned by how naive we were to expect a world revamp.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I wish I could share the optimism towards an upcoming world revamp in 10.0. In the end it will be Dragon Isles and we all will be stunned by how naive we were to expect a world revamp.

Man I keep trying to come up with a worse alternative that's still on Azeroth and there really isn't one left is there. It's like Dragon Isles, New Continent, or they lied about returning to Azeroth and we're going to the Lifelands.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I don't agree with Preach's opinions on literally anything about WoW, but I do agree with his takenon what we saw Zereth Mortis and what the zone looks like.


Myself? I can't wait to get to the Zandalar-looking Nagrand zone.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I don't agree with Preach's opinions on literally anything about WoW, but I do agree with his takenon what we saw Zereth Mortis and what the zone looks like.


Myself? I can't wait to get to the Zandalar-looking Nagrand zone.

The zone or at least part of it looks pretty cool to me. The only problem is the presentation and well people's expectations of a livestream(LIke when chains of domination launched).

[Luck4]

Story and Lore
"There are many facets of the Warcraft universe still waiting for us to explore in both the cosmic sense of Eternity’s End, and the more grounded events in Azeroth featuring characters we know and love, with many areas yet in Azeroth to be discovered."

This was taken from the front page interview round-up, but what many areas are those? Are they going to pull a continent out of nowhere?

I wish I could share the optimism towards an upcoming world revamp in 10.0. In the end it will be Dragon Isles and we all will be stunned by how naive we were to expect a world revamp.

I'm hoping for a revamp because WoW desperately needs a soft reboot. I mean, just look at Zereth Mortis, a nowhere place from a nowhere land, have you seen anyone hyped for this stuff? It's like visiting someone's dream world. If this is what the future has in store for this franchise I'm sorry but WoW is doomed.

We need new characters, old characters growing faster, new leaders, new heroes, new cities, changes in territories, new alliances, and new threats. We can't keep following Jaina, Thrall, and co. in wonderland forever.

This is what made WoW successful:


And Vanilla (Classic) success after nearly 20 years proves that WoW success doesn't come from cosmic sci-fiction stuff.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Everything is pretty eerie right now, just waiting for 10.0 announcement and then I suppose hope that they execute on the Content angle and not bog down with grandiose ideas again that kill the expansion.

Regardless, the team will have a hard time hitting the Q4 2022 window with 9.2 releasing potentially mid Feb-March with 10.0 Alpha and Press Interviews in April.

[Ersula]

This was taken from the front page interview round-up, but what many areas are those?

If the End of Antorus cinematic is any indication, the "known" parts of Azeroth is only the northern hemisphere & would explain by real world logic why Northrend is icy & Pandaria isn't. I'm equally curious how the rest of the world dealt with the scourge & legion, even if it's a big narrative middle finger to every globe in a Titan fascility.