Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Raetary]

Blizzard is not going to have 2 game releases (Which are both of the same franchise and literally share the playerbase) compete with each other.

[Chickat]

Only if you pretend Dragonflight's announcement wasn't 5 months late.

A lot of you are pretending Shadowlands is naturally a 30 month expansion when all other expansions have been about 24-25 month rotations.

Theres plenty of evidence this expansion will be 26 months minimum if not 28. I personally think it will release in March, but we shall see.

I hope they plan on having a long alpha/beta for feedback. 8+ months.

Alpha- mid to late June
Beta- August
Prepatch on ptr late November.
Prepatch live mid Feb to Mid march
Dreagonflight live Mid march to late March.

8-9 months of testing.

[rhorle]

Most players are already cyclical anyway. You are far more likely to lose MAU by having them release together, while stretching it out is unlikely to have much, if any effect. The impatient bunch here is not the average player.

Not if most players are cyclical right? Because that means they will come back for the content that is released for the product they want to play. Why would stretching it out have little to no effect if most players are cyclical? That would mean that by delaying one it increases the length of low MAU in the cycle. If they release both in the same month they they can count any who plays both as 2 MAU instead of one.

So if Blizzard only cared about the economic of MAU then releasing for both Retail and Classic in the same month would be the way to go. As they can double dip when players come back as part of "the cycle", right?

[Dracullus]

Blizzard is not going to have 2 game releases (Which are both of the same franchise and literally share the playerbase) compete with each other.

Games of course not, but Season 4 and Lich King with ~4 weeks between wouldn't be surprise at all. But probably not Nathria/Naxxramas scenario.

And of course this discussion will soon end, Lich King launch is last thing on Classic that could spark interest bigger than major retail patch.

[Valysar]

They can release S4 and Wotlk at the same time, because a lot of players won't care at all about S4 which is just about recycled content

[Dracullus]

They can release S4 and Wotlk at the same time, because a lot of players won't care at all about S4 which is just about recycled content

Unlike Naxxramas for 4th time and zones from 2008 never removed from game.

Season 4 is increasing your character power just like any new tier. Many people care about it more than clearing content.

[Valysar]

Unlike Naxxramas for 4th time and zones from 2008 never removed from game.

Season 4 is increasing your character power just like any new tier. Many people care about it more than clearing content.

Yeah but recycled content, that's the point of Classic, it should not be for retail (except mage tower, etc)

[Padwarle]

About time.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

About time.

Sweet /10chars

[wowrefugee]

Lots more encrypted files this build.

- - - Updated - - -

That person who suggested the release date of May 31st (just ahead of Diablo Immortals release) because of the DI icons being added might've been right. We'll find out tomorrow I guess, maybe.

[TaliaKirana]

I logged into PTR to check myself and it *is* flagged release candidate. We'll probably get a release date shortly.

[wowrefugee]

Most files are encrypted, but there's one file among them that has a blp header in the code, so I changed the file type and viewed it:



No clue what it is, but here.

Note: The background color is my photo viewer.


Edit: I don't know if this is how it's meant to be, but I photoshopped to line up the elements:

[Ersula]

Perhaps a new mythic key interface design now that the competitive year is over? They've had that one design for about 5 years now.

Edit: It strongly resembles Naga arcane runes from the Nazjatar raid. So its tangentially elvish. If it does have something to do with Darkfallen it may be their attempt to create a cultural aesthetic for the relatively new Undead Night Elves.

[Melorandor]

About time.

So, four more weeks till 9.2.5?

[wowrefugee]

So, four more weeks till 9.2.5?

9.2 PTR release candidate was Feb 10th, with release being Feb 22nd.

9.1.5 was Oct 20th, with release Nov 2nd.

So closer to 2 weeks, unless I'm missing something.

[Ersula]

9.2 PTR release candidate was Feb 10th, with release being Feb 22nd.

9.1.5 was Oct 20th, with release Nov 2nd.

So closer to 2 weeks, unless I'm missing something.

We've had release candidates to live thresholds anywhere between a week and 2 months.

[Ersula]

Could be tied to he undead following Calia perhaps. Looks vaguely like symbolism for the cycle of life and death. Maybe Calia's new undead become the sort of legacy of the Shadowlands. Redeemed souls sent back to Azeroth?

That's a good guess. First thing I thought was Rin'dorei. We really don't know much about the Undead Night Elves. And old bit of lore for undead is that they become alienated from nature magic, it would make sense for them to lean into the Arcane.

I would guess the Night Elf Darkfallen would go with Elvish runes & Blood Elf Darkfallen go with an inverted Blood knight motif.

[wowrefugee]

Instead of Night Elf fallen, I'd like if we got some night elves with tons of customizations based off Tyrandes empowered form like this:



Not only is it more fitting for the NE, it'd be cool to mirror this but with allied races (darkfallen and empowered night elves)




We know about the Winter Queen giving Tyrande a seed, which most people I believe expect it to be used for a new Night Elf tree, but it could be written to bring about ardenweald/elune/winterqueen empowered night elves

[Melorandor]

Redeemed souls sent back to Azeroth?

Oh my god, please no.

[Nymrohd]

I haven't said its not late. I have said the information we have received about Dragonflight is the same as we have received in past expansions including Legion. If we don't have more information in 2-3 months then your statement will be correct. It is not correct now however.

We only know the name of three dungeons (and not from the presentation, they are just mentioned in the website) and don't even know about the raid. We were told about both Emerald Nightmare and Nighthold in the Gamescom announcement. Really the only thing we've got a decent amount of information on is the profession revamp.