Dragonflight 10.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Le Conceptuel]

Lightforged Warlocks lol.

This is the kind of development so moronic that it is wholly impossible to predict, yet which we simultaneously ought to have predicted by now regardless. This is really fairly standard in respect to how the lore is being handled now, and we all should have prepared ourselves to be thrown back on to Danny's wild ride on account of how unusually placid the waters seemed.

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Reading the Augmentation article, they talk about how its a new playstyle, the whole supporting buffs stuff. That does kinda open the door now to other ideas (hope I'm not opening a can of worms here, heh). Neat stuff.

If memory serves correctly, I spoke before to @Fahrad Wagner about the possibility of a Bard class, and he was advocating for it where I was not. This makes his preference seem far more plausible now.

[Super Dickmann]

I am happy to see the new Evoker specialization simply on account of that a decent number of people will have to own up to being wrong in connection to an argument with Teriz. But this one was really something everybody saw coming from a mile away, given how it was foreshadowed with the subtlety of a shovel flying at one's face.

I doubted Teriz once. It's been immortalized in my signature and I will never repeat my mistake again.

[Le Conceptuel]

Though I'm characteristically exuberant about more Infinite lore, I'm not particularly enthusiastic about having more Chromie in my life. She's a tolerable side character, but having a character with the personality of a shitty JRPG mascot in the forefront is remarkably insufferable.

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I doubted Teriz once. It's been immortalized in my signature and I will never repeat my mistake again.

To be fair, nobody believed in or wanted the Dracthyr. My best recollection of my first look at the model brings to mind the revelation that comes near the end of a Lovecraft novel, and I feel that whole sequence of events was remarkably similar to the end of Shadow Over Innsmouth: the discovery of a horrible, sanity-rending truth, followed by acceptance thereof from a mind left in a state of dubious sanity.

[Kiivar86]

The real surprise is that barring any quests that aren't out yet, Fyrakk is gonna make it through two patches.

Seems so. I'll go eat my crow.

[Nymrohd]

If memory serves correctly, I spoke before to @Fahrad Wagner about the possibility of a Bard class, and he was advocating for it where I was not. This makes his preference seem far more plausible now.

Bard as a Rogue Support spec. Maybe I should accept bets?

[Super Dickmann]

To be fair, nobody believed in or wanted the Dracthyr. My best recollection of my first look at the model brings to mind the revelation that comes near the end of a Lovecraft novel, and I feel that whole sequence of events was remarkably similar to the end of Shadow Over Innsmouth: the discovery of a horrible, sanity-rending truth, followed by acceptance thereof from a mind left in a state of dubious sanity.

Ah, the old BFA rodeo. A familiar, horrific experience.

I don't actually mind Chromie. Or rather, I didn't. But there's something about her voice actor in Dragonflight that makes me want to ram a plastic dragon into my cochlea just so she can shut the fuck up. She is so fucking twee that I've half a mind that the VA is taking the piss but no one has the heart to tell her to cut it out so she just keeps upping it with every delivery. The moles don't have this oddly enough.

[Le Conceptuel]

Bard as a Rogue Support spec. Maybe I should accept bets?

That wouldn't be a bad way to handle it, and it helps with the strong degree of thematic overlap and difficulty in finding an expansion theme that would suit Bards.

[Nymrohd]

To be fair, nobody believed in or wanted the Dracthyr. My best recollection of my first look at the model brings to mind the revelation that comes near the end of a Lovecraft novel, and I feel that whole sequence of events was remarkably similar to the end of Shadow Over Innsmouth: the discovery of a horrible, sanity-rending truth, followed by acceptance thereof from a mind left in a state of dubious sanity.

Also the speculation before we started decoding the leak (which was a fairly curious leak) was more about an actual dragon class/race with a visage form, not a scaly. And while range spec and healer was a lock because we haven't had a ranged spec forever, pretty much everyone assumed that a dragon class/race would also be a tank.

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That wouldn't be a bad way to handle it, and it helps with the strong degree of thematic overlap and difficulty in finding an expansion theme that would suit Bards.

If support specs are in, we'd need more than one.

I wonder how bad Augmentation will suck at solo/world content. Sounds like it will suck a lot.

[Le Conceptuel]

Ah, the old BFA rodeo. A familiar, horrific experience.

I don't actually mind Chromie. Or rather, I didn't. But there's something about her voice actor in Dragonflight that makes me want to ram a plastic dragon into my cochlea just so she can shut the fuck up. She is so fucking twee that I've half a mind that the VA is taking the piss but no one has the heart to tell her to cut it out so she just keeps upping it with every delivery. The moles don't have this oddly enough.

Part of it likely has to do with that the mole-men aren't hogging every cinematic in connection to an otherwise-enjoyable plot with the horrible visibility of an indescribable alien serpent swallowing the sun. As for Chromie herself, she's really only a microcosm of the general overabundance of outright cutesiness this expansion; the conspiracy theorist is inclined to suggest that Blizzard wanted to try to appeal to an eastern MMO audience, and—knowing that they already had microtransactions—could only think of aping the aesthetic. I'm all for a nice, upbeat adventure expansion, mind you, but this whole expansion has indulged the lightheartedness excessively.

[Berkilak]

Maybe Enhancement could actually live up to its name for the first time in its existence?

[Nymrohd]

Part of it likely has to do with that the mole-men aren't hogging every cinematic in connection to an otherwise-enjoyable plot with the horrible visibility of an indescribable alien serpent swallowing the sun. As for Chromie herself, she's really only a microcosm of the general overabundance of outright cutesiness this expansion; the conspiracy theorist is inclined to suggest that Blizzard wanted to try to appeal to an eastern MMO audience, and—knowing that they already had microtransactions—could only think of aping the aesthetic. I'm all for a nice, upbeat adventure expansion, mind you, but this whole expansion has indulged the lightheartedness excessively.

I don't think they are trying to appeal to an eastern MMO audience. I think they are trying to appeal to the western audience that plays cute/wholesome games. Women.

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Maybe Enhancement could actually live up to its name for the first time in its existence?

But do people who play enhancement shaman want the spec to suddenly be near the bottom of the dps ranks and have fairly poor dps for solo activities?

[Cheezits]

Also the speculation before we started decoding the leak (which was a fairly curious leak) was more about an actual dragon class/race with a visage form, not a scaly. And while range spec and healer was a lock because we haven't had a ranged spec forever, pretty much everyone assumed that a dragon class/race would also be a tank.

Drekthar being a leak for Dracthyr is really really funny in retrospect.

I do wonder if the names of Dracthyr and Venthyr being so similar will ever be a plotpoint. They are both uh... created by creatures that Order-obsessed beings made? Maybe Thyr means Thrall (in the original sense) in Titan/First One language?

[Sondrelk]

Ah, the old BFA rodeo. A familiar, horrific experience.

I don't actually mind Chromie. Or rather, I didn't. But there's something about her voice actor in Dragonflight that makes me want to ram a plastic dragon into my cochlea just so she can shut the fuck up. She is so fucking twee that I've half a mind that the VA is taking the piss but no one has the heart to tell her to cut it out so she just keeps upping it with every delivery. The moles don't have this oddly enough.

Chromie has a bad case of Overexposure-itis. She isnt really a character that works when she is important I think. She is at her best when she is overseeing weird shenanigans, or other forms of sidequests.

[Le Conceptuel]

I wonder how bad Augmentation will suck at solo/world content. Sounds like it will suck a lot.

Eh, should be no worse than leveling as a healer. I figure it's a specialization you're meant to switch to after you reach max level, especially given how you have to unlock it.

Also the speculation before we started decoding the leak (which was a fairly curious leak) was more about an actual dragon class/race with a visage form, not a scaly. And while range spec and healer was a lock because we haven't had a ranged spec forever, pretty much everyone assumed that a dragon class/race would also be a tank.

I do recall that. In retrospect, I suppose the horizontal size of a Drake would have been very distracting, even if the vertical size would be easy enough to handle on account of their size as mounts. Still kind of a shame, though, because I've seen very few people take the Dracthyr as particularly appealing. They have an audience, of course, but they're rather iffy in their design overall.

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Chromie has a bad case of Overexposure-itis. She isnt really a character that works when she is important I think. She is at her best when she is overseeing weird shenanigans, or other forms of sidequests.

That's my feeling on the matter. She's find as a side character, but actually being thrust into the spotlight in a serious storyline isn't something that suits her.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The Lightheartedness isn't excessive. Mole people and centering the patch around them....is well not as cool(The concept of the caverns is fine) as I thought I'd be ok with. Personally I would of been better with more Earthen or other underground races and such. Maybe I'm being too grumpy but I feel like I'm not. Course I'm the guy who wanted a real underground expansion so thats my bias.

[Sondrelk]

I don't think they are trying to appeal to an eastern MMO audience. I think they are trying to appeal to the western audience that plays cute/wholesome games. Women.

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But do people who play enhancement shaman want the spec to suddenly be near the bottom of the dps ranks and have fairly poor dps for solo activities?

Honestly, in thinking about it, the idea that an enhancement spec would be bottom tier DPS doesnt really make sense. Surely their DPS would be calculated as how effective they make their allies. An inexperienced player would only pull 30k+20k. A good one might pull 35k+100k with the right setup.
It's likely going to be a minmaxing nightmare, as well as a pool of toxicity in pugs, but I somehow doubt it will be worse than an optics issue.

[Cheezits]

The Lightheartedness isn't excessive. Mole people and centering the patch around them....is well not as cool(The concept of the caverns is fine) as I thought I'd be ok with. Personally I would of been better with more Earthen or other underground races and such. Maybe I'm being too grumpy but I feel like I'm not. Course I'm the guy who wanted a real underground expansion so thats my bias.

If its any consolation, no Earthen now makes it way more likely that they will appear later (on top of the Khaz Algar namedrop).

[Nymrohd]

I do recall that. In retrospect, I suppose the horizontal size of a Drake would have been very distracting, even if the vertical size would be easy enough to handle on account of their size as mounts. Still kind of a shame, though, because I've seen very few people take the Dracthyr as particularly appealing. They have an audience, of course, but they're rather iffy in their design overall.

Honestly if a drake race/class had been done well, it would be dangerously cool and would probably fuck up the class population.

[Le Conceptuel]

After the SL subrace skins (Wildhammer and various trolls) and Dark Ranger skin I think we're never getting a "race + new skin" AR ever again.

All the better. I'd much rather Allied Races be saved for races that have substantial physical differences from the main races.

[Super Dickmann]

Part of it likely has to do with that the mole-men aren't hogging every cinematic in connection to an otherwise-enjoyable plot with the horrible visibility of an indescribable alien serpent swallowing the sun. As for Chromie herself, she's really only a microcosm of the general overabundance of outright cutesiness this expansion; the conspiracy theorist is inclined to suggest that Blizzard wanted to try to appeal to an eastern MMO audience, and—knowing that they already had microtransactions—could only think of aping the aesthetic. I'm all for a nice, upbeat adventure expansion, mind you, but this whole expansion has indulged the lightheartedness excessively.

I think it's just an overdone course correction, partly because the last two expansions were criticized for being massively bleak, which they weren't, they just had subject matter that was so absurdly, comically dark when compared to the Saturday Morning Cartoon-style morals and conveyance of them. This plus Hearthstone being praised for how it handled Warcraft material, which has a much lighter tone had them import a bit of that into the game proper. It's generally fine in as much as the tone and the material match, one of the reasons Chromie is so terrible at it is because the subject matter, while not exactly grim, is more serious than most of DF while she's more obnoxiusly cute than even made for mascot characters like the niffen.