Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Chickat]

Yeah, I'd love to be running around in Goblin form, then suddenly turn into a dragon to smite fools, but alas, it is not meant to be.

Again, I don't like their decision, but I understand why they did it.

And I love Wrathion anyway, so I'm looking forward to being an approximation of one of my favorite characters.

I want to be an elf anyways, so it doesn't effect me much, but more options are always better.

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Is Blizz adding in any content in Shadowlands to hold us over?

A new Season with all 3 shadowlands raids being relevant increased item level and affixes added to the raids to spice them up. Also they are adding 8 old dungeons as mythic+ dungeons for season 4.

[rhorle]

Actually no, they said literal flying. As in you go airborne, move around, and use your abilities on targets. They showed it on one of the deep dives.

You might be over selling it slightly. They say you can fly then show a clip of moving in a straight line. So it looks like the flying might be simply abilities you trigger and similar to things we already have examples of in the game for "airborne" attacks.

[Teriz]

I want to be an elf anyways, so it doesn't effect me much, but more options are always better.

What color dragon is your Dracthyr going to be?

[Vakir]

I've said my piece about the Dracthyr form obviously getting some changes before release. No need to discuss that further.

Nope. You actively pushed misinformation and played it off as fact and you refuse to accept that.

Words matter. Think more carefully next time.

[Teriz]

You might be over selling it slightly. They say you can fly then show a clip of moving in a straight line. So it looks like the flying might be simply abilities you trigger and similar to things we already have examples of in the game for "airborne" attacks.

I think it was in Ion's deep dive where it showed the Dracthyr flying around like levitation and still doing attacks. I could be mistaken about that though.

[Chickat]

Honestly other than minor issues that occur, only the new class, talent system and dragonriding need a lot of testing. Might be a shorter test period than before

Crafting and they said the UI needed testing as well.

[Jodmos]

I think it was in Ion's deep dive where it showed the Dracthyr flying around like levitation and still doing attacks. I could be mistaken about that though.

There was one deep breath style flying over the enemy and one channeling a beam while hovering above the ground and strafing (the hover was a good but higher than levitate but hardly flying). Those are the two instances I can remember.

[Vakir]

Bear in mind, there's plenty of situations that involve hovering or flying animations where you're still able to be attacked as normal and are vulnerable to ground hazards even if the visual indicates otherwise.

It's entirely possible they might take said flying and make some liberties with it for balance reasons. As absolutely cool as having some of that mobility would be on a caster.

[Teriz]

There was one deep breath style flying over the enemy and one channeling a beam while hovering above the ground and strafing (the hover was a good but higher than levitate but hardly flying). Those are the two instances I can remember.

It’s the second one. I think Ion even was talking about flying attacks at the time. Anyways, these flying attacks are a very cool subset of abilities. I hope they add some more of the flying abilities from HotS like Dragonflight and Cleansing Flames.

[Chickat]

This is what I was thinking. Poor indie company aside expansions in wow are either rich in content or rich in system updates.

Cata overpromised and underdelivered, but the zone revamp was needed, flying was needed, new race-class combos were needed.
WoD was infamous for being light on content, but let's be real. It was needed for the long-term health of the game. It had character model updates, a stat and item level squish, rework of stats, rework of raid difficulties, rework of group finder, inventory tweeks, and all this shit.
Shadowlands came with the level squish, chromie time, the new customization options and eventually the cross-faction group finder.

So what does tell us about Dragonflight with the new UI, new talents and profession revamp?

Honestly if all the DF stuff is good and if they do a world revamp for 11.0 WoW might be more modern than games that released a decade after it.

[wowrefugee]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)


They also make it clear that you are stuck in dragon form for combat, and they double down on dracthyrs being evokers and evokers being dracthyr, so opening it up to other classes is absolutely not in the cards

[Chickat]

I'm still standing by my point that from what we've been presented, this expansion is absolutely bereft of features.

Blizz have some very easy wins here they can implement to beef out this expansion. Right now for me, its drifting in qn average hype level for the expansion. With a few more easy yet strong features, this could still climb to Legion and MoP levels.

MORE ALLIED RACES - This is an extremely easy win. Placate those of us who can't or won't play Dracthyr. Tuskarr, Vrykul, Gnolls, Centaur and Furlbolgs are all highly fan requested and would fit in with the theme and lore of the expansion. And for the love of God, just add some Dragon esque race that can play other classes to appease the players who want to play with the Dragon aesthetic but not Evokers. Dragonkin, Drakonids or Dragonmen, it doesn't matter.

MORE CHARACTER CUSTOMISATION - This is another easy option as proven by some talented fans. More beards, hairstyles, tattoos, markings, jewelry, skin colours etc. We don't need intricate shit like sliders. Just give us more options.

EXPAND TIMEWALKING - Make Timewalking a permanent feature on a two week rotation. Add dungeons from that expansion to the mythic+ pool. However, if Blizz are determined with their current plan for Mythic+ for DF Season 1 - then make the the Mythic+ seasons shorter and separate to raid seasons. Make the dungeon pool for that season follow a theme, whether it be expansion themed, race themed, event themed, aesthetic themed, whatever. Attach more rewards to Timewalking vendors. Transmog, mounts, toys.

DRAGONFLIGHT TORGHAST - Pretty much a copy and paste of the Jailer's Gauntlet from Shadowlands, but this time with iconic bosses from WoW's history as bosses. 5 man or raid bosses. Tune them around solo and group play. Have it reward Bronze Dragonflight rep, cosmetics and possibly a weekly source of gear; like visions. Of course change the aesthetic to be iconic locations from WoW's history too.

ESSENCES - I'm not one of those who devoutly believes all systems are bad. I enjoyed artifacts and would happily have them back. I know many wouldn't. I'm not crazy about covenants but I recognise the strengths and weaknesses. Essences however, in my mind, and many others were one of the better implemented systems. You could swap, customise and experiment at your leisure. At times, the acquisition was less than ideal but I feel the pro's for Essences outweigh the cons.

These are some pretty easy wins here and would beef out and benefit this expansion greatly. The MoP vibe is great. The return to basics for the most part is great. We don't want this expansion to suffer due to lack of content. To me, it seems dangerously close to WoD, just replacing Garrisons with Dragon Riding.

So how would you feel if we get the following.

1 preorder allied race.
2 allied races during the expansion.
Continued character customization options.
Timewalking expanded into a bigger feature along with a new Caverns of time.

No torghast
No essences

[Shadochi]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)


They also make it clear that you are stuck in dragon form for combat, and they double down on dracthyrs being evokers and evokers being dracthyr, so opening it up to other classes is absolutely not in the cards

Oh great if confirmed customizations for that

[therumblings]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)

Oh my, that's a huge relief! I'm a bit more excited now.

[Chickat]

The testing period might be short, but content-wise this does not look anywhere near as finished as previous expansions so I do think we're looking at like 9 or 10 months, minimum.

I think they are ahead art wise, but behind design wise. Which makes sense. The only new art they added since Shadowlands launch with a small Korthia, and Zereth Mortis. They had a ton of time to work on art. With a lack of new major systems, and all systems designers focused on talents and professions this could be great.

I mean no one likes most new features in the last 2 expansions.

They waste so much time balancing stuff like covenants and artifacts, and waste a ton of time fixing the expansion. If it launches in a good state they can spend all the time and effort making great patches.

Also with no big new features and obviously the same amount or even more devs for Dragonflight, I think its logical to assume we will have a lot more good content in zones. Shadowlands and BFA felt anemic for end game content. MoP for its time did not. We want more MoP and less BFA/Shadowlands.

[ercarp]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)


They also make it clear that you are stuck in dragon form for combat, and they double down on dracthyrs being evokers and evokers being dracthyr, so opening it up to other classes is absolutely not in the cards

This makes me really happy to hear, but I still think the bulky version should be made bulkier as right now the difference is too subtle to really even be noticeable.

But this confirms there already is a body type toggle for the Dracthyr, so all they have to do is make the bulky option bulkier.

[Sondrelk]

Honestly if all the DF stuff is good and if they do a world revamp for 11.0 WoW might be more modern than games that released a decade after it.

I almost wonder whether they might be planning to make DF a shorter expansion again, especially if it releases late Q1, early Q2 2023.

Do a shorter expansion similar in length to SL, then announce 11.0 at Blizzcon 2023 and be back on track for a Q3 release 2024.

The other option would obviously be to make Q1/Q2 the new norm for WoW expansion releases, but somehow this feels unlikely to me.

[Deadmines]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)


They also make it clear that you are stuck in dragon form for combat, and they double down on dracthyrs being evokers and evokers being dracthyr, so opening it up to other classes is absolutely not in the cards

Shoulders, Tabards and Belts. I can live with that. Thank you for posting this.

[m4Zzo928]

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...-and-tina-wang

Some fantastic Dracthyr stuff here:

- dragon form customization DOES involve torso width being slender or bulkier, as well as different shapes of the face
- you will be able to see tabards, belts AND shoulders in dragon form (with some armor we've seen also being customized in barbershop)


They also make it clear that you are stuck in dragon form for combat, and they double down on dracthyrs being evokers and evokers being dracthyr, so opening it up to other classes is absolutely not in the cards

Ok, that's great info, thanks.

[Chickat]

While players love transmog, Druids are by far the most popular class, and like this class they spend their combat time in a form that doesn't show weapons or gear.

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Actually no, they said literal flying. As in you go airborne, move around, and use your abilities on targets. They showed it on one of the deep dives.

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I've said my piece about the Dracthyr form obviously getting some changes before release. No need to discuss that further. As for the Steamscale, clearly it was a hint for the dragon expansion. So yeah, it went somewhere. Did it go as far as I thought it would? Nah, but hey, that's what speculating in speculation threads is all about.

Im aware you are flying, but you cant ascend into the air more. You hover above the ground and can cast while moving. Sure it might be great for aoe ground effects, but its not like its going to make a huge difference in PVP over something like spiritwalkers grace other than the fact that you can move faster. Its spiritwalkers grace mixed with ground effect invulnerability mixed with a minor sprint.

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What color dragon is your Dracthyr going to be?

Either bronze or black. I haven't decided yet. Im thinking bronze though.