World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

[Aeula]

>Quel'thalas update.
>Silvermoon is a hostile city.

Please no. You can't blame it on Afrasiabi this time Danuser.

[Lecadre]

I find the entire dragon concept incredibly boring for a whole expansion. I want them to do something completely new with Azeroth in unknown lands and people, like Pandaria (my favourite expansion)

Pandaria was not a new place, it already existed in Warcraft 3 before World of Warcraft and Chen Stormstout mentioned it several times, all of expansion regions so far were already in the lore, including Draenor and the Dragon Isles

[DarkAmbient]

I think this might be a case of getting the name right but the details wrong. Imagine Blizzard finally introducing Tinkers and it's a one spec micro class. And Dalaran as a capital city again? Not without a major revamp.

[ParanoiD84]

Dragon expansion would not be my favorite pick but aslong as we stay on azeroth and keep away from cosmic stuff that they are not doing a good job at im good.

Also i remember the hype before bfa and sl and we know how that went so my hype levels are pretty low this time around.

[Deventh]

Super tinfoil hat time

What if Blizzard is intentionally tapping into the meta for this one?

They randomly pick a fake leak that's rarely being considered/talked about, they take that name and register it on their site, and they also create some throwaway 'promotional art' with a fake logo on reddit to throw everyone off the scent.

Think it's possible they're conning us with this one? Like they intentionally might know someone would try and datamine the website so they purposely throw a red herring our way?

[Melorandor]

No leveling? *sadaltnoises*

The leveling part at the start of every expansion is one of the best parts

Also: Mini Tinker class. Oh boy. Some people will absolutly loose their shit in this forum.

While i guess it is pretty much confirmed OP was on to SOMETHING. I am not convinced about the micro classes.
Rest sounds plausible i guess. Proto-Demons is weird. Also nothing expect a bit of the classes and skins has anything to do with dragons which is a bit weird if the expansions NAME is dragonflight...

I think its supposed to be the level cap stays at 60 while Shadowlands gets moved into 50-60, and everyone is squished back to 50 again which I doubt.

[Skylarking]

carpenter profession? lol wat

[Aurrora]

Guy was wrong about the timing of the announcements though.
There’s a chance, like with shadowlands, that people just took a shot in the dark on the title and got it right without actually knowing anything.

We had a dungeon boss straight up name drop the expansion though, what in Shadowlands has pointed to the next expansion being about the dragonflights?

[FelPlague]

Some time ago a few screenshots were posted on MMOC and deleted minutes after. Some posters saved them and PMed them to a few others. Might be one of those screenshots.

it wasnt screenshots, it was descriptions of concept art they had to work with.
the screenshots was just of the description, guy eventually leaked em all though, and it was not what we see here.

[DarkAmbient]

carpenter profession? lol wat

Makes sense if player housing is a thing. Plans for chairs, tables, beds, cupboards, drawers etc. Tailors could make wall hangings, bed sheets, curtains and so on. Blacksmiths could make other stuff for the house. But I think everything except the title of this leak is fake.

[FelPlague]

We had a dungeon boss straight up name drop the expansion though, what in Shadowlands has pointed to the next expansion being about the dragonflights?

datamined dragon mount
dragon bundle
tons of dragon stuff in bfa
a bit of dragon stuff in shadowlands including the oracle speaking the major powers, void, demonic, death, and then... draconic?

[TribLeL]

IMO, One of the best changes wow brought us years ago were the multi-specialization system. At least in Vanilla or BC where the system wasn't implemented, If you wanted to play a class and their specializations you could farm money and change your talents. The new micro-classes system is even worse. In Fact, now you are restricted to play only 1 spec, and you cann't change it. Same with the gear, in Vanilla and BC you could play as a Tank and could get the gear that nobody needed and play other roles. Now you have to farm gear for every micro-class alter. I suppose that the logic is just money. They suppose that we will spend more time playing wow cause we have more characters to equip.

I love when new classes are introduced, even if I didn't play them. But if this become real, i'm not playing this xpa.

[XDurionX]

I think this might be a case of getting the name right but the details wrong. Imagine Blizzard finally introducing Tinkers and it's a one spec micro class. And Dalaran as a capital city again? Not without a major revamp.

Yeah, this is BS, OP just guessed the name right, which wasn't too hard.

[ClassicPeon]

It's honestly the only way that microclasses make any sense, if they start leveled or are playable by any character like this. But if this was the case and OP is real they for sure would've known and included that, that's a huge game changing feature and expansion seller ect that would be impossible to miss.

Plus people would be upset about all the alts they spent time leveling. It's a much better system, WoW can't easily go to it after so long though.

If microclasses is real it sounds like an awful leveling experience that's for sure.

Microclasses do not make any sense whatsoever. 1 spec and if you want to do anything else then reroll a new class?

Healer want to farm/do world content? I mean its possible but no thanks lol.

Its not happening. Like there is no reason to even intertain the idea. It would literally be the worst idea ever.

[Baedril]

Microclasses do not make any sense whatsoever. 1 spec and if you want to do anything else then reroll a new class?

Healer want to farm/do world content? I mean its possible but no thanks lol.

Its not happening. Like there is no reason to even intertain the idea. It would literally be the worst idea ever.

It does feel like somebody saw that FFXIV did it and then forgot to read the part where FFXIV allows one char to be every class.

[ercarp]

Since the expansion title seems to be probably correct, I'll humor this one with an analysis/commentary of my own.

TLDR
Main enemy is Chromatus, though lots of minor stories all about.

I had to look up Chromatus on Wowpedia because I had no idea who you were talking about. If I'm not mistaken, Chromatus has only been mentioned in novels until now.

Normally I'd say that makes for a pretty poor expansion villain since most people won't even know who they're fighting, but seeing as Blizzard pulled the Jailer out of their collective ass without any prior set-up, Chromatus would actually have more legitimacy as a major antagonist than the Jailer ever did. +1

6 disconnected zones (2 of them being revamps).

Dragon Isles. Technically its own continent though it’s just one zone split into multiple maps. Floating islands between the Broken Isles and Northrend.

I really dislike it when they do disconnected zones, and I think Blizzard is aware that they're not super popular either, so I somehow doubt that they would give us just more of the same after SL. I don't want another hub-style expansion setting, and I don't think Blizzard does either. -1

4 new micro classes (1 spec each) instead of one full new class.

The only way I can see this happening is if the classes are usable only in outdoor content or some other type of limited activity (i.e. Blue Mages from FF14). But if these "micro classes" were all usable in PvE and PvP without any limitations... Well, I don't even want to consider the balancing nightmare that creates. -1

Class ‘skins’ for some preexisting classes.

Plausible. Sub-races were also just a popular fan theory until Blizzard made them into Allied Races. In a lot of ways I feel like class skins are the new "sub-race fan theory" in this regard, and I think Blizzard must have realized the potential in implementing them. +1

Player housing.

I don't care for player housing personally but it has been a popular request over the years so I can see Blizzard caving in to the demands. If they can pull it off in a good way, good on them I guess. +1

Carpenter and Logger professions.

Makes sense if Player Housing is being added. It would be about time we got some new professions, actually. I don't remember the last expansion that added any...

Dalaran capitol city.

Don't fix it if it ain't broke, lol. I mean, it does make sense to bring a floating city with us if we're going to a bunch of floating isles. But I find it funny that Blizzard would just keep recycling Dalaran over and over—but I also can't blame them because it's a really well designed city.

No level cap increase.
Rewards from Shadowlands just get scaled down. Everything in 10.0 is max level content (level 60) with no level squish, so there is no need to level if you already have max level characters. Progression is just endgame progression.

This. Sounds. Stupid.

Leveling is a core part of the MMO experience imo, and working your way up to the new level cap (or trying to speedrun it) when a new expansion rolls out is almost like a massive community event. Removing levels and focusing purely on endgame progression sounds extremely anti-fun and anti-MMO. -2

Lordaeron. Revamped Tirisfal/Plaguelands. Scarlet/Light focus.
Quel’thalas. Revamped Eversong/Ghostlands.

I think this is trying a bit too hard to make something out of the datamined Tirisfal/Ghostlands stuff. I don't think any of these zones will be revamped. -1

Silvermoon is a hostile city like Suramar.

Sounds terrible. So they would finally revamp the city to meet modern standards after ~15 years and then turn it into a hostile get-fucked zone like Suramar that we can't even hang out in? No way, lol. -1

Undermine. City-zone beneath Kezan. Criminals and Uncrowned story. Fully underground.

Eh, maybe. I don't really see how this fits with the overall dragon theme, but I could see Undermine added as a Mechagon-style patch zone. +1

Balor. Halfling race dealing with primordial fel enemies (think proto-demons, like what the Shadowlands creatures are to undead).

I don't even know what the hell I just read here but I don't like any of it. -1

Uldaz. Second fully underground zone ever on Azeroth. Titan/Elune story here.

If anything, Dragon Isles should have Uldorus. Uldaz sounds too exotic/Troll-ish for this setting. They're probably saving Uldaz for Tel'Abim. Yup.

I do think there will probably be a Titan facility on the Dragon Isles so I'll give this one a point. +1

Dragon Knight. Only one tank spec. Uses two-handed weapons, fire, plate armor and shouts.

Why would they waste a dragon-themed class on something like this...? Especially since we know dragons are more than just tanks. This might work for a Black Dragon themed class, but Red dragons are healers, Blue dragons are mages, etc. etc. -1

Tinker class. Only one damage-dealer spec. Uses guns, mail armor, gadgets and mech suits.
Minstrel class. Only one healer spec. Uses leather, lutes, violins and panflutes.
Chronomancer class. Only one healer spec. Uses cloth, time magic, and sand magic.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say no to all of these at once. This entire "micro class" idea sounds stupid and completely impractical. -3

Dark Ranger skin for Hunters. Dark spell effects. Tames undead instead of animals.

As I mentioned above, class skins have been a popular fan theory/request for a while so they'll definitely happen sooner or later. So while this is the most believable part of your leak, it's not the most original. +1

Necromancer skin for Warlocks. Plagues instead of curses. Summons undead instead of demons.

Sounds cool, sure, why not. +1

Nightmare skin for Druids. Corrupted spell effects and animal forms. Can unlock wildly different forms (that play the same as normal druids) like snakes and spiders.

Blizzard loves handing out more cool shit to druids, don't they?

Dragonsworn skin for Shamans. Draconic spell effects and forms.

No. Dragonsworn are going to be a class, not a random-ass skin for SHAMANS of all classes. -1

Warden skin for Demon Hunters. Uses arcane and holy magic instead of fel.

Sounds neat but kind of far-fetched as a DH class skin imo. But I guess that depends on how they plan to do them.

Continued Order Hall stories, though only a select few and you pick them like Covenants. There are no gameplay differences between them, just different campaigns, mounts, mogs and companions.

I'm all for bringing back Order Halls, but when your leak's new ground-breaking system is described as "like Covenants, but ...", I just find it hard to believe. It sounds lazy and unimaginative. -1

Expansion announcement February 28th. Announcement for the announcement planned for the 18th. Goal is to release Q1 2023.

Announcement date is already wrong. It's not even the date of the announcement of the announcement. -1

Q1 2023 as a goal sounds awfully early to me but I guess it can happen if it's something like late March 2023.

[rarhyx]

Microclasses do not make any sense whatsoever. 1 spec and if you want to do anything else then reroll a new class?

Healer want to farm/do world content? I mean its possible but no thanks lol.

Its not happening. Like there is no reason to even intertain the idea. It would literally be the worst idea ever.

as much as I think it is bs as well
let's be fair here
we don't have classes anymore since a few expansions
we have specs
and each one is so "unique" you dont even feel you play a certain class anymore but a specc (or hero from a moba)
back then you had one class with like 20 shared base abilities/attacks and 5 from each spec
nowadays you have like 5 shared base abilities and 20 from each spec

and as a healer you can do stuff in the open world since wrath

[LordVargK]

what is a point of "squish stats" and not adding levels or delevel your characters to 50 and keeping max lvl at 60? people don't like if they lose something and since cata with every expansion we lose something don't you think its a time to stop it ? or at last for me to stop it (playing this game)...

The point is, that without a squish/reduction your stats would grow infinitly. Also MoP was the last Expansion that really added something for you to unlock through leveling. I don't know what you think you would lose through a stat squish. But I guarantee you that you will lose everything covenant and legendary related either way.

[Collected]

The leak said SL stuff (and that includes gear I assume) will be scaled down. So expect a micro squish maybe?

I agree with your noting that this feels like a big patch, though. Leveling has tradition, even if it has been boring in the past years. I could see us getting set back to 50 again, though. Would mean no new level cap. So the leak would be partly true.

I fully expect them to drop us all back to 50 again in the pre-patch. They put too much work into the Chromie Time system to abandon it after one expansion. They'll just slot Shadowlands into 10-50.

[ClassicPeon]

as much as I think it is bs as well
let's be fair here
we don't have classes anymore since a few expansions
we have specs
and each one is so "unique" you dont even feel you play a certain class anymore but a specc (or hero from a moba)
back then you had one class with like 20 shared base abilities/attacks and 5 from each spec
nowadays you have like 5 shared base abilities and 20 from each spec

and as a healer you can do stuff in the open world since wrath

The class identity thing is a completely seperate point. This is solely about the "i leveled a healer and now i'd like to try something else" argument.

Being a healer/tank in the open world is doable, even advantageous in niche situations, but in far most situations its annoying and slow.

Edit:

Not to mention how much it would suck to literally only have 1 spec to play. Its already pretty bad for the DH