Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[ExiHext]

I'm sure there's some behind the curtain information that flows from Lore to the big WoW streamers he's buddies with.

But I'm also sure none of them will leak it because they know if they do it's gonna cost their friend a job. And probably get him blacklisted from the industry.

Yeah, sure. Because streamers wouldn't sell their grannys for clicks.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Yeah, sure. Because streamers wouldn't sell their grannys for clicks.

You know when your job title is to find streamers for Blizzard to work with I think you're able to weed out the clickbait streamers.

[Makabreska]

Yeah, sure. Because streamers wouldn't sell their grannys for clicks.

Well, it would be a one time gig, because then no dev would work with a streamer like that.

[Dracullus]

I'm sure there's some behind the curtain information that flows from Lore to the big WoW streamers he's buddies with.

But I'm also sure none of them will leak it because they know if they do it's gonna cost their friend a job. And probably get him blacklisted from the industry.

Not any 9.2 info, but if Blizz plan some press event in November they already must ask streamers and talk about it, cause it's hard to even say who quit WoW and who "quit" WoW (until 9.2).

[Nokster10]

Did any streamer even say anything about 9.2? If so what did they say?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Not any 9.2 info, but if Blizz plan some press event in November they already must ask streamers and talk about it, cause it's hard to even say who quit WoW and who "quit" WoW (until 9.2).

Is there actually some november event going to happen is that just speclation(genuine question).

[Nyel]

It's just speculation and rumors. I think this is mostly based on

a) the defeaning silence from Blizzard regarding 9.2 in general,
b) the hope that 9.1.5 gets live by the end of October which would usually mean 9.2 gets to the PTR shortly after and
c) Final Fantasy XIV dropping Endwalker in November and Blizzard countering this with 9.2 info and PTR.

By the end of the day it's 99% wishful thinking and 1% reality.

[Black Rider]

Does Method and other top tier guys test raids even before the PTR?
Maybe they want to give us a hint.
Tired of informational vacuum.

[Sondrelk]

Does Method and other top tier guys test raids even before the PTR?
Maybe they want to give us a hint.
Tired of informational vacuum.

No, Blizzard has its own in-house raid team that does preliminary raid testing, as well as being responsible for testing bosses not seen on the PTR.
It's why the mythic raid difficulty seems to fluctuate so wildly. The team has to assume a skill gap between themselves and the top tier raiders in the world. Sometimes the Blizzard team is really good, sometimes not.

[Dracullus]

Is there actually some november event going to happen is that just speclation(genuine question).

Educated guess :
- 9.1.5 is close to release no matter if it's late October or early November,
- 9.1 has almost 5 months, Blizzard is very slow this expac, but c'mon,
- Blizzard did event like this before 8.2 PTR, situation is very similar to that period,
- FF14 release new expansion, very likely Blizzard will throw all they have: 9.1.5, Legion timewalking, maybe something nice for anniversary (oh how I wish we get quick 50-60 leveling like two years ago), 9.2 news etc. during that time,
- Some poster above also said Towellie is already spreading rumours some press event is planned - he (Towellie I mean) usually gives vague info, but real one,
- December is pretty bad month to start PTR.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It's just speculation and rumors. I think this is mostly based on

a) the defeaning silence from Blizzard regarding 9.2 in general,
b) the hope that 9.1.5 gets live by the end of October which would usually mean 9.2 gets to the PTR shortly after and
c) Final Fantasy XIV dropping Endwalker in November and Blizzard countering this with 9.2 info and PTR.

By the end of the day it's 99% wishful thinking and 1% reality.

I'd say it's less wishful thinking more extrapolating based on prior trends.

Which is dangerous when we're dealing with the twin unknowns of WFH and the Lawsuits.

[Lahis]

No, Blizzard has its own in-house raid team that does preliminary raid testing, as well as being responsible for testing bosses not seen on the PTR.
It's why the mythic raid difficulty seems to fluctuate so wildly. The team has to assume a skill gap between themselves and the top tier raiders in the world. Sometimes the Blizzard team is really good, sometimes not.

Didn't the in-house team get fired with the 800 person layoff couple years back?

[Nyel]

I'd say it's less wishful thinking more extrapolating based on prior trends.

Which is dangerous when we're dealing with the twin unknowns of WFH and the Lawsuits.

Yeah you're right on that, it's not really wishful thinking. It's exactly that, extrapolating trends (and hoping for the best). A little bit of copium is mixed into this assumption though.

[Sondrelk]

Didn't the in-house team get fired with the 800 person layoff couple years back?

The in-house raid team is composed of general staff, not an actual team of developers who solely raid. Some of the ones that might have been part of this team might have been fired, but so long as there are at least 20 developers that can test mythic they still have a team.

[Cosmic Janitor]

The in-house raid team is composed of general staff, not an actual team of developers who solely raid. Some of the ones that might have been part of this team might have been fired, but so long as there are at least 20 developers that can test mythic they still have a team.

Do you have a source for that? Because even if I ignore cases where they put map in wrong, clearly showing no one tested a build at all before throwing it on the PTR, it seems highly inefficient to have to gather 20 people and let them actually play it. I would just throw up a sandbox with test parameters and check out the encounter scripting that way, which would also be in line with weirdly tuned mechanics that can only really happen if you eyeball it.

[Sondrelk]

Do you have a source for that? Because even if I ignore cases where they put map in wrong, clearly showing no one tested a build at all before throwing it on the PTR, it seems highly inefficient to have to gather 20 people and let them actually play it. I would just throw up a sandbox with test parameters and check out the encounter scripting that way, which would also be in line with weirdly tuned mechanics that can only really happen if you eyeball it.

It was mentioned by Ion way back in response to why raid bosses were sometimes overtuned or underuned. Specifically in that case why Tomb of Sargeras was such a particularly brutal raid, the reason he gave being that they usually test the last boss internally until they can beat it, then buff the boss to account for a higher level of skill, which meant that as the internal raid team got better they ended up tuning the bosses higher than even the best raiders could manage.
This was also really just for the final boss should be mentioned, for regular bosses they bank on bugs being picked up by mass player testing on the PTR, which is why the final boss tends to have an above average amount of bugs or cheese strats compared to other bosses.

Now obviously this was way back in Legion, so things could have changed. But the reasoning was good enough that I reckon Blizzard still does that when tuning raids.

[Vasoka]

So.. what's the likelihood of any actual news today? I know they usually announce stuff on Wednesday/Thursday, but has there been Monday announcements like ever?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Didn't the in-house team get fired with the 800 person layoff couple years back?

No that was something Belluar made up, they laid off like 11 testers of over 300.

[Nyel]

So.. what's the likelihood of any actual news today? I know they usually announce stuff on Wednesday/Thursday, but has there been Monday announcements like ever?

What kind of news? A new 9.1.5 build or what would you be expecting right now?

[Cosmic Janitor]

What kind of news? A new 9.1.5 build or what would you be expecting right now?

I mean technically they didn't even announce the patch release date yet, we all just assume it's once we reach 80 or the week(s) after to make it in time for the double TW week of the calendar. That would be anouncement worthy at least.