BfA Patch Speculation thread (8.3 and later).

[AngerFork]

Is this going to replace gamescom? https://denverpopculturecon.com/awesomeness/blizzard/

Hrmm, debating going. Might be fun, but have never really been a fan of DCC (or now DPCC) in the past.

[Wilfire]

Does anyone know how the loyalist side of the scenario plays out? Do you get a choice not to snitch on Saurfang & co and join the rebellion?

[Sondrelk]

Does anyone know how the loyalist side of the scenario plays out? Do you get a choice not to snitch on Saurfang & co and join the rebellion?

You start by learning that you have to get into their inner circle, so just do whatever they ask you to, then you play the same scenario as the rebels. Then you get a turnin where Nathanos talks about how aggravating it is to have to pretend ot be on their side and release Baine because that is supposedly an important part of the plan to stop the rebels.

All in all, you do the exact same thing as the rebels, except you are told releasing Baine and killing other Loyalists is all part of the plan.

[rcshaggy]

[Nyel]

5 months is plenty of time for people to experience 8.2.

Only when 8.3 is bigger than 8.2 which I doubt.

[Sondrelk]

You know, instead of having Nathanos say how aggravating it is to kill loyal members of the Horde, he complains about Baine . . .
Unless of course the grand plan is to make everyone undead so killing Horde members doesn't matter?


____

Btw how is everyone who is testing feeling about Essences? While I like them as a system, on my tank I barely even notice them.

The largest problem i see with essences at the moment is honestly just the minor annoyance of having to go back to the heart chamber to replace traits. And while the annoyance is very minor, over time that annoyance is going to build up, and most people are going to end up using the same 2-3 essences without much experimentation.
The biggest question surrounding essences though is the rate at which you get them and how good it feels to get the one oyu want. they very much seem like what they were advertised as, a middle ground between artifacts and legendaries, and like legendaries, how annoying they are to get will be the determining factor in the wide response to them.

[Eleccybubb]

To be fair neither do you, you hate this game but obsess over every tiny detail.

Yeah because Broken Shores timegating was so fun right?

Oh wait....

[Kathranis]

After the new PTR update tauren heritage armor chest piece don't have Totem attached to it, at least on wowhead when im checking it out.

The totem is supposed to be on the back slot, according to what they said at Blizzcon. Which means you're supposed to be able to use the totem with any transmog of your choice, instead of a cloak.

[Sondrelk]

They seem pretty easy to get tbh. Getting the epic ones will take a while.
My concern is that they are just going to lead to degenerate gameplay. Giving every dps class another cooldown (some of them quite significant) that they can effectively stack upon others means we will see ridiculous gameplay like we had back in HFC. All healers having an extra big cooldown will mean that there will need to be frequent and insane bursts of damage to keep people busy. And tanks will be left with no weaknesses and will either have to face bosses with very frequent big damage events or that just hit extremely hard. This will be even worse for M+ considering you can have multiple people pick an extra AoE burst cooldown that will likely bring back big pulls big time.

As for changing essences, I changed talents and gear all the time throughout Legion. Using a tome to change essences for a different raid boss or taking a moment to shift essences before I start doing M+ does not seem like much of an issue. If anything it's the part of the gameplay I hope for.

Ohh yeah, you can change the essences with a tome, shut my mouth then. But yes, i do think that the amount of active abilities is a bit on the high side, in fact, i can only remember a single passive major trait, which for those of us who like to streamline the classes is a bit disappointing. (And yes, i am confident i will use no major essence besides the passive one once i get it)
Getting the epic essences is obviously not needed, but given that upgrading the essence is a tiny upgrade over the initial ones, everyone will feel a subtle need to upgrade them, which coupled with some of them coming from rather niche activites like dungeon achievements or high mythic keystone, will mean that essences will get a good roasting on the forums.

They do seem to change where the essences are from between each PTR patch though, so i guess i just need to keep my fingers crossed that the ones i want will be available quickly.

[Sondrelk]

I'll disagree that the epic upgrade is minor, in many cases it is quite significant. Ultimately though for the majority of essences getting the epic one will not be particularly hard. Imo the only hard ones are the ones from Mythic Azshara and from rated PvP.

The upgrade is significant enough to be noticed, but i do not think it is in any way impactful enough to be called major, that is just my initial impressions though. The big problem with discussing them is honestly just that their aquisition is kind of in flux at the moment, meaning that until all the ways to get them are more or less fixed and Blizz does the scheduled PTR character wipe for targeted testing, we will not really know how annoying or easy the essences will be to get, and honestly not even then, considering i cannot imagine i will ever do, say, Mechagon achievement run on PTR just to test how good it feels to get the upgrade.

The system does look good though, if a bit shallow. But sometimes, shallow is all that is needed to breathe some life into the game, and i am looking forward to getting the essences.

[rda]

My concern is that they are just going to lead to degenerate gameplay. Giving every dps class another cooldown (some of them quite significant) that they can effectively stack upon others means we will see ridiculous gameplay like we had back in HFC. All healers having an extra big cooldown will mean that there will need to be frequent and insane bursts of damage to keep people busy. And tanks will be left with no weaknesses and will either have to face bosses with very frequent big damage events or that just hit extremely hard. This will be even worse for M+ considering you can have multiple people pick an extra AoE burst cooldown that will likely bring back big pulls big time.

What will happen with their design of "let's give everyone a big CD that they won't be able to ignore, and declare victory, because hey, people press that button" is very simple:

If the CDs are already overpowered, they are going to be nerfed until they are not overpowered.

"Not overpowered" for a rarely pressed CD means that you generally don't notice it. If it's good enough to make a difference in that some fight without it is not doable, but with it doable, that's overpowered (that makes them have to rethink encounter balance bla bla bla = overpowered). So, it cannot be that good. But it also has a long cooldown. So, what is it going to be? Something that you can press or can skip pressing and still proceed forward. Once every two minutes. That's called "yeah, I have that, but sometimes I forget about it, and things are fine".

That's meh and that's by design.

The CDs on the PTR that are currently not overpowered, that people barely notice, might get buffed so that people notice them. The moment they start playing any role at all, they will become overpowered and then they will be nerfed. To where they again will mostly be unnoticeable. There's just no other way, that's in the design.

[Sondrelk]

What the system is though is definitely not alt-friendly. Having to grind all the new factions to exalted with every alt is inane.

Ohh yeah, definitely. The irony of it is that the people that clamored for a return to artifacts because it was supposedly better than azerite in every way is going to complain about the alt-unfriendliness of it without considering that the alt-unfriendliness is one of the exact reasons azerite was designed like it now.

[Aeula]

Night Elven Dark Rangers are back.

[Verdugo]

I like how even NPCs on the loyalist side think this is stupid.

[Sondrelk]

Playing through the Baine scenario on Alliance was kinda weird overall, and just cemented Blizzards staunch refusal to acknowledge the Horde being written as the villains. I mean, first you have Alliance mentioning how this is the second time they ahve had to deal with the horde Warchief problem, then they bring up howthe Horde commited genocide by burning Teldrassil, then at the end we have one of the Dark wardens raised in Darkshore. It really feels like Blizzard just refuses to accept that they have made the Horde evil in this expac. Saurfang should at least show some kind of semblance of emotion at the lives he helped take that started the war properly. And Thrall should have some kind of reaction ot Jaina and Shaw rightfully pointing out that the Horde always goes evil.
For Thrall especially, here he is given essentially 3 gut punches to his belief in the horde in rapid succession, shouldnt he have a moment of epiphany where he considers maybe just saving Baine and letting the Horde self-destruct to prevent it from becoming what he hates.

Blizz did mention the Alliance getting some internal turmoil, and given that the only foreshadowed conflict is whether the Horde should be forgiven, i hope 8.2.5 and 8.3 actually sits down to deal with the mess they created with the Horde. Alliance should not have to take shit because Horde wasted their Nth chance at reconciliation again.

[Fahrad Wagner]

So first impressions visiting Nazjatar:

• The zone is huge and reminiscent of Argus as it is intricate to navigate through it.
• It feels a lot like Mac'Aree because the terrain is wrecked and there a lots of condensated city ruinds, mixed with Azsuna which makes sense but removes a bit of flavour as we've seen that already. Going for a more Suramar-like experience for Zin'Azshari would have made a difference in my opinion.
• The water wall is really cool, and the whole zone makes you feel like it really was underwated just a few hours ago.
• I like it globally, I just hope they will add a little je ne sais quoi to the zone. Maybe the music will help.
• I particularly love the Ankoan, those guys look dope.

[Sarethion]

dont apply logic to blizzard.

Yeah, I guess this was my mistake - still, the amount of inconsistencies in their writing in this expansion is something else, even for Blizzard.

As for the PTR... Is it just me or is it moving at a really decent pace? It's been like 2 weeks or so since the PTR launched and we already have most of the patch's content available for testing. Out of the big things that we are still missing, there's just the raid and heroic warfront. Plus of course a lot of balancing, bug fixing and polishing.

I'm starting to think that an early to mid June release date is actually possible.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Well they did say they were far along. I still think we need at least 6 more weeks of PTR.

That's my guess as well!

[Nathanyel]

After the new PTR update tauren heritage armor chest piece don't have Totem attached to it, at least on wowhead when im checking it out.

Good, hope it becomes a 'cloak'/back slot appearance as suggested at BlizzCon, attaching it to the chest limits choices, and it makes no sense to have a separate cloak inside the totem.
I assume the version attached to the chest was just a first version to have it testable at all.

[Drekmar]

Holy shieet, Call to Arms: Mechagon. What a bloodbath that will be.