Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[EbaumsTipster]

I'd say desaturate it a bit. But overall, i've always preferred this general design over Blandvaal. This feels a lot more like the central and first being of the shadowlands. It's not like his powers are purely physical, either. If anything, he's so far almost exclusively resorted to magic.

IMO, they should have switched the Primus' and Zovaal's designs. Being in their physical prime appearance wise makes far more sense for a military leader than somebody whose design was for judging souls.

Primus design is genius IMO, for being so close to the classic necromancer design and being the inverse of what you said: you don't need to be muscles to be a military leader.

Zovaal is muscley mostly to make it a surprise when its revealed he's really the Arbiter, which didn't work because it happened too late when nobody cared anymore/was obvious to begin with.

Also, Zovaal being Nathrezim themed is counterintuitive when Denathrius is supposed to be "apex Nathrezim" in every way save for the wings. Nathrezim are supposed to go beyond Zovaal despite them working for him.

There's actually some room for cool lore with "was Zovaal Arbiter scary looking like he is now, was "Obleron" the old place where souls flowed through, what was Shadowlands like pre-Mecha Arbiter" but they'll never address it because people have checked out and will shit themself if they introduce anything not Azeroth at this point.

[username993720]

Northrend is a strong option for an alternate Shadowlands.

Two different places.

[EbaumsTipster]

Two different places.

Northrend and the Shadowlands are close enough in “connected areas” concept to the Emerald Dream and the Lifelands, though the ED was created out of Lifelands magic and is in its own pocket dimension.

Considering the implications of Yogg and the Nerubians (and the Vrykul worshipping Death), it can be inferred that Zovaal has been influencing Northrend for a very long time. Even if he didn’t create it.

EDIT: And is very possible that Elune/other Life gods similarly messed with the ED, though i’m not sure if that part of its lore 100%

[username993720]

Northrend and the Shadowlands are close enough in “connected areas” concept to the Emerald Dream and the Lifelands, though the ED was created out of Lifelands magic and is in its own pocket dimension.

Not a single frost-covered zone in the Shadowlands.

[micwini]

Are we expecting anything today?

[EbaumsTipster]

Not a single frost-covered zone in the Shadowlands.

Ice is not the magic power of Northrend, Death is. Arthas just made Frost part of his death knight powers.

[username993720]

Ice is not the magic power of Northrend, Death is. Arthas just made Frost part of his death knight powers.

Arthas made nothing. It was the Lich King, or Ner'zhul, at that time.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Are we expecting anything today?

No, very likely nothing this week outside of potential Council Retail Dev Responses.

Very likely if we get a February Release we would get the release date earlier in January.

New Build will come later this week with perhaps some big tease.

[Varodoc]

Isn't it kinda boring repeating that again?



Like where?

Don't act like Shadowlands was the only natural outcome plz because most people here genuinely believed 9.0 was going to be about Evil Bolvar with revamped Northrend as the questing continent.

If anything Shadowlands was the wild option as an entire questing continent, since it was always, and exclusively, featured either as a ghostly wasteland or a shadowy wasteland, and thus was likely to get the Argus treatment.

[Dioporco]

Not even close. Despite a few missteps, BFA was a solid expansion. Also while Shadowlands has been mediocre, the level squish and Exile's Reach have both been really good additions to the game.

BFA SOLID EXPANSION ?


Azeirte?

Warfronts fiasco?

Expedition Island worse than chinese gacha grindset?


Ye buddy sure

[Lahis]

Are we expecting anything today?

Just the usual.

Disappointment in the game, executives, or both.

[username993720]

Don't act like Shadowlands was the only natural outcome plz because most people here genuinely believed 9.0 was going to be about Evil Bolvar with revamped Northrend as the questing continent.

If anything Shadowlands was the wild option as an entire questing continent, since it was always, and exclusively, featured either as a ghostly wasteland or a shadowy wasteland, and thus was likely to get the Argus treatment.

What are you talking about?
Everybody was talking about this:

[Sondrelk]

What are you talking about?
Everybody was talking about this:

That one was only valid in the pre-8.3 discussion period though, only a few diehard believers held onto it after we knew the last raid of BfA was Ny'alotha.
Dragons were actually what I remember most leaks were about at that time. The Awakening leaks were doing the rounds with promises if dragon isles and maybe some death stuff in the background.

[EbaumsTipster]

That one was only valid in the pre-8.3 discussion period though, only a few diehard believers held onto it after we knew the last raid of BfA was Ny'alotha.
Dragons were actually what I remember most leaks were about at that time. The Awakening leaks were doing the rounds with promises if dragon isles and maybe some death stuff in the background.

Death and Dragons being the choices for 9.0, and 9.0 almost entirely ignoring Dragons means they are coming up for 10.0 definitely (backed up by the Emerald Drake mount). And the dragon stuff coincidentally(no) lines up with the idea of returning to the old continents again like Cata did.

There isn't any big next expansion tease in Shadowlands (or on 9.2 PTR so far) so that also lends credence to the soft reboot idea.

[Varodoc]

What are you talking about?
Everybody was talking about this:

"Everybody was talking about this" all I remember is the usual thread about this blatantly fake leak that got debunked immediately when people pointed out flaws in the logo/font or something like that.

Let alone the fact that that expansion about "Shadowlands" had a very different premise from this one. In that leak, N'Zoth won and took over Azeroth, and the forces of Azeroth had to escape to the Shadowlands. To find a way to beat N'Zoth and save Azeroth.

That leak was accompanied with an obviously fake pic of Stormwind being overrun by ghosts. As well as the laughable idea that Sylvanas wanted to kill and turn everyone into ghosts so that she gets an army to fight N'Zoth.

Trash. Genuinely trash leak.

Once that pic of Bolvar (which was not fake) got leaked, everyone thought the next expansion was about Bolvar going evil and revamped Northrend. Especially since Bolvar was already set up as a shady individual in Legion, when he messed with both the paladins and the red dragons.

Do you know what idea no one brought up? An expansion set in an "afterlife" (which is really just another dimensional plane) with furries, smurfs, and vampires.

[username993720]

That one was only valid in the pre-8.3 discussion period though, only a few diehard believers held onto it after we knew the last raid of BfA was Ny'alotha.
Dragons were actually what I remember most leaks were about at that time. The Awakening leaks were doing the rounds with promises if dragon isles and maybe some death stuff in the background.

Dragon Isles is still a possibility.
He said most of us thought of facing Bolvar in Northrend.

Once that pic of Bolvar (which was not fake) got leaked, everyone thought the next expansion was about Bolvar going evil and revamped Northrend. Especially since Bolvar was already set up as a shady individual in Legion, when he messed with both the paladins and the red dragons.

Do you know what idea no one brought up? An expansion set in an "afterlife" (which is really just another dimensional plane) with furries, smurfs, and vampires.

The leak was just before the cinematic, which pretty much confirmed Shadowlands.
No one thought we would face Bolvar as the big baddy in an alternate Northrend, since he was our ally in Legion.
Shadowlands was always the afterlife. We just had no idea what it looked like.

[Varodoc]

Dragon Isles is still a possibility.
He said most of us thought of facing Bolvar in Northrend.



The leak was just before the cinematic, which pretty much confirmed Shadowlands.
No one thought we would face Bolvar as the big baddy in an alternate Northrend, since he was our ally in Legion.
Shadowlands was always the afterlife. We just had no idea what it looked like.

Huh, No, PLENTY of people thought Bolvar was going to be the main villain.

I was also on several Discord servers and pretty much the majority thought Bolvar was the villain and anyway Northrend was getting a revamp.

Bolvar was "our ally" in Legion only because the Legion threatened the entire world, Scourge included, and the Scourge and the Legion have often been enemies. Bolvar wasn't a good guy in Legion, go play that quest where you slaughter red dragons, he was far from a good guy.

If anything this Bolvar that appears in Shadowlands is a pussy compared to what he did in Legion. And naturally a picture of "Bolvar" by itself doesn't hint at "Shadowlands". In fact, before all the asspulls and retcons of Shadowlands, the Lich King and the Shadowlands did not have a lot of connections. Like at all. If anything the Shadowlands had more connections with the Light (see the Naruu taking souls away) and the Void (described as an endless Void in the Sylvanas short story).

[Sondrelk]

Death and Dragons being the choices for 9.0, and 9.0 almost entirely ignoring Dragons means they are coming up for 10.0 definitely (backed up by the Emerald Drake mount). And the dragon stuff coincidentally(no) lines up with the idea of returning to the old continents again like Cata did.

There isn't any big next expansion tease in Shadowlands (or on 9.2 PTR so far) so that also lends credence to the soft reboot idea.

From my entirely accurate analysis of expansion predictions i have seen that expansion themes tend to be heavily teased 2 expansions out, with the effect being that there tends to be a fan favourite prediction that only really comes to pass the expansion after.
MoP heavily teased the Legion returning to Azeroth, which didn't happen in WoD, but instead the expansion after.
Legion had loads of hints leading to the Shadowlands with Helya, Odyn's eye, Gul'dans staff etc. But still BfA didn't Do Shadoelands, the expansion after did.

Going by this pattern I figure that since BfA had loads of stuff with the return of Dragons, and that Shadowlands cashed in on buildup from Legion I am pretty confident 10.0 will be dragons.

- - - Updated - - -

Dragon Isles is still a possibility.
He said most of us thought of facing Bolvar in Northrend.



The leak was just before the cinematic, which pretty much confirmed Shadowlands.
No one thought we would face Bolvar as the big baddy in an alternate Northrend, since he was our ally in Legion.
Shadowlands was always the afterlife. We just had no idea what it looked like.

Bolvar was our ally sure, but it was very heavily foreshadowed that Bolvar was slowly turning into a new lich king, and that us helping him in Legion was actually going to bite us in the ass later when he asserted control over the death knights.

Whether the expansion would be us trying to save him or not was difficult to say, but until the Shadowlands trailer it was very much believed we would have to fight him at some point.

[EbaumsTipster]

If anything this Bolvar that appears in Shadowlands is a pussy compared to what he did in Legion. And naturally a picture of "Bolvar" by itself doesn't hint at "Shadowlands". In fact, before all the asspulls and retcons of Shadowlands, the Lich King and the Shadowlands did not have a lot of connections. Like at all. If anything the Shadowlands had more connections with the Light (see the Naruu taking souls away) and the Void (described as an endless Void in the Sylvanas short story).

Considering that literally all lore post-Sargeras and N'zoth is now an asspull, when will people get tired of saying it? It's now almost interchangeable with "new lore" because we ran out of stuff, outside of Tel'abim. Dragon Isles will be an asspull because they didn't exist canonically until BFA mentioned them.

We'll see the Void Lords and they will be an "asspull" for every single one of them except for that tiny quest mob guy from TBC.

[Hitei]

I redid the aforementioned Jailer redesign. Does this better communicate the Nathrezim themes without being as colorful?

Lol, Ghost of Christmas Past.