9.0 General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

Man I can't believe that Shadowlands is canceled. I wonder what the next xpac will actually be then?

Wrath of the Bolvar, obviously.

[EbaumsTipster]

My first sincere post of the day: I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they add a small hero class like Dark Ranger to the expansion and hand wave the delay with "oh well you need to kill Sylvanas first".

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Man I can't believe that Shadowlands is canceled. I wonder what the next xpac will actually be then?

Secrets of Tel'abim, a single patch expansion leading up to the Wrath of the Bolvar expansion in Southrend.

[ercarp]

They already have a perfect cinematic ready and waiting on Youtube they could pinch.

In spectacular 4K HD quality, no less.

[Sondrelk]

My first sincere post of the day: I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if they add a small hero class like Dark Ranger to the expansion and hand wave the delay with "oh well you need to kill Sylvanas first".

I could see it happening.


On that note though, i was doing a run of Waycrest Manor when Gorak Tul mentioned how we needed to defeat Lucille Waycrest to let him back into the world. I wonder if there will be a similar thing with Sylvanas and the Jailer. I still cannot imagine the final raid of Shadowlands taking place in any other place than Azeroth, so we would have ot release whoever will be the final boss eventually.

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In spectacular 4K HD quality, no less.

It even has Alextrasza in it, for her first cinematic appearance.

[EbaumsTipster]

I could see it happening.


On that note though, i was doing a run of Waycrest Manor when Gorak Tul mentioned how we needed to defeat Lucille Waycrest to let him back into the world. I wonder if there will be a similar thing with Sylvanas and the Jailer. I still cannot imagine the final raid of Shadowlands taking place in any other place than Azeroth, so we would have ot release whoever will be the final boss eventually.

Jailer will definitely get released at the expense of Sylvanas dying or being jailed at the midpoint. I think he might just go to the Edge of Reality over Azeroth though: they'll save any new Azeroth zone for a full fledged new version of the continent instances.

[Edward Wu]

I'm hearing from my sources that the reason it's taking so long is that they are actually adding in Tinkers in order to spice up the expansion.

[matrix123mko]

It's taking long because they've decided to add another class

I would be beyond happy but I don't think Blizzard will invest money after they lost so much via Reforged refunds.

[EbaumsTipster]

I would be beyond happy but I don't think Blizzard will invest money after they lost so much via Reforged refunds.

Clearly Blizz will not try to make money after they lost it...????????

Whether a company loses money they just give up and fold!

[Sondrelk]

Jailer will definitely get released at the expense of Sylvanas dying or being jailed at the midpoint. I think he might just go to the Edge of Reality over Azeroth though: they'll save any new Azeroth zone for a full fledged new version of the continent instances.

I am not sure. The main problem is that unless there is some even more evil superhell, there isnt anywhere to go after the Maw. The X.2 patch is historically a side-story, so no problem there. But the final patch tends to require some form of escalation. Imagine if we had an Argus expansion and the first patch already had us wandering around outside Antorus.

[matrix123mko]

Killing a bunch of worthless cockroaches isn't genocide though.

Exactly. They were nothing but spider eating insects.

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Clearly Blizz will not try to make money after they lost it...????????

Whether a company loses money they just give up and fold!

It seems so looking at Blizzard and its decisions in 2018/2019.

[Fluffernut]

Blizz just announced via their twitter that they are not attending the GDC due to kung flu.

https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/sta...858581506?s=20

[EbaumsTipster]

I am not sure. The main problem is that unless there is some even more evil superhell, there isnt anywhere to go after the Maw. The X.2 patch is historically a side-story, so no problem there. But the final patch tends to require some form of escalation. Imagine if we had an Argus expansion and the first patch already had us wandering around outside Antorus.

The Maw is the focal point of the first half because they learned from legion how little players cared about the ToS. Suramar was what people cared about until Argus. They screwed the pooch with their narrative.

Considering the Maws biggest purpose is "prison for evil guy" and said evil guy is likely going to break out so we can face him at full power, there will be some kind of new place to fight him. It's just a mystery to us because they're marketing the end goal of the first half right now: Maw is basically Legions Tomb, with a bit of Suramar in how Sylvanas is being utilized like Gul'dan.

[ercarp]

Blizz just announced via their twitter that they are not attending the GDC due to kung flu.

https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/sta...858581506?s=20

Interesting. Most big companies just like to pretend the virus doesn't exist.

[kaid]

I think a lot of these cancellations are mostly not wanting workers potentially quarantined in random locations on the company dime.

[EbaumsTipster]

Clearly a bad sign. If Blizz was confident in Shadowlands they would've sent their employees in to get plagued.

[Fluffernut]

Clearly a bad sign. If Blizz was confident in Shadowlands they would've sent their employees in to get plagued.

This made me laugh. I wasn't intending to make such an awkward segue from SL peculation into the GDC pullout; I just wanted to share the information.

[Onikaroshi]

Blizz just announced via their twitter that they are not attending the GDC due to kung flu.

https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/sta...858581506?s=20

Good lord this whole thing is so overblown

[formerShandalay]

I could see it happening.


On that note though, i was doing a run of Waycrest Manor when Gorak Tul mentioned how we needed to defeat Lucille Waycrest to let him back into the world. I wonder if there will be a similar thing with Sylvanas and the Jailer. I still cannot imagine the final raid of Shadowlands taking place in any other place than Azeroth, so we would have ot release whoever will be the final boss eventually.

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It even has Alextrasza in it, for her first cinematic appearance.

I actually think the Jailer will already have been released or at least his chains have been broken at the beginning of ShL. If you watch the release cinematic stuff, at one point it looks like he's kind of ... sitting down still chained, but in the final frame with Sylvanas there, he's standing up and his chains hang loosely and broken from his arms.

[Sondrelk]

The Maw is the focal point of the first half because they learned from legion how little players cared about the ToS. Suramar was what people cared about until Argus. They screwed the pooch with their narrative.

Considering the Maws biggest purpose is "prison for evil guy" and said evil guy is likely going to break out so we can face him at full power, there will be some kind of new place to fight him. It's just a mystery to us because they're marketing the end goal of the first half right now: Maw is basically Legions Tomb, with a bit of Suramar in how Sylvanas is being utilized like Gul'dan.

That is my point though. The final patch requires us to go somewhere with a connection ot the final villain that allows us ot witness how powerful he is.

In BfA went to Uldum and Vale because our enemy was related to Azeroth, and these places are related to N'zoth.
In Legion we went to Argus, and more specifically Antorus because that is the stronghold of the Legion.
In WoD we went to Tanaan because that is where the Hellfire Citadel is.

All the other expansions have omitted a dedicated final patch zone, like MoP, Cata and WotLK.
Ideally we should be getting an area that raises the stakes for the player. And seeing as the Maw is already in use from the beginning the only area that would have any narrative significance would be Azeroth itself.
Either that or we get another MoP situation, where the raid and the endgame area are completely separated.

[EbaumsTipster]

This made me laugh. I wasn't intending to make such an awkward segue from SL peculation into the GDC pullout; I just wanted to share the information.

You're good. I just was beaten by an actually sincere post shitting on Blizzard for not killing its employees over VIDEO GAMES.